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diff --git a/old/44249.txt b/old/44249.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3789f22 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44249.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5550 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Detectives, Inc., by William Heyliger + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Detectives, Inc. + A Mystery Story for Boys + + +Author: William Heyliger + + + +Release Date: November 21, 2013 [eBook #44249] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DETECTIVES, INC.*** + + +E-text prepared by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +DETECTIVES, INC. + +A Mystery Story for Boys + +by + +WILLIAM HEYLIGER + + + + + + + +The Goldsmith Publishing Company +Chicago + +Copyright 1935 by +The Goldsmith Publishing Company + +Made in U. S. A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + Foreword 13 + Theft in the Rain 21 + Voices in the Night 53 + The Unknown Four 81 + Blind Man's Touch 107 + Birthday Warning 137 + The House of Beating Hearts 163 + As a Man Speaks 193 + Arm of Guilt 221 + + + + + FOREWORD + + + DOGS WHO SET BLIND MEN FREE + +In Morristown, New Jersey, there is what is probably the most remarkable +school in the world--a school where dogs are educated to liberate +physically the blind people of our country. This school is called The +Seeing Eye and was founded in 1928 by a woman whose life and wealth has +been devoted to this remarkable cause; her name is Mrs. Harrison Eustis. + +Female German shepherd dogs are chosen for this work because they are not +easily distracted from the duties entrusted to them. It takes from three +to five months to complete a dog's education. The first few months are +spent with her instructor: she learns to pick up whatever he drops; +learns that if she walks off a curb without first stopping, he stumbles +and falls; that if she passes under a low obstruction, he hits his head. + +It is very hard to find men with sufficient patience to learn how to +educate these dogs and it is equally as difficult to teach the blind how +to rely upon and use these dogs. + + + HOW THE DOG WORKS + +The method by which the dog and man work together is simple. The dog +guide does not take her master to his destination without being told +where to go. It is not generally appreciated, but blind people develop an +adequate mental picture of their own communities. All they need is a +means by which they may be guided around _their_ picture. In a strange +city they ask directions as anyone else would. It is simple to remember +the blocks and to remember also when to go right or left. In familiar +territory people with eyesight do not look for the name of every street. +The master directs his dog by oral commands of "right," "left" or +"forward." But it is the dog that guides the master. By means of the +handle of the leather harness which he holds lightly in his left hand, +she takes him around pedestrians, sidewalk obstructions, automobiles, +anything which may interfere with his safe progress. The pace is rapid, +rather faster than that of the average pedestrian. Upon arriving at +street crossings the dog guides her master to the edge of the curb and +stops. He finds the edge immediately with his foot or cane and then gives +his guide the necessary command for the direction in which he wishes to +go. + +The dog can be depended upon to do her part. Her lessons have been +thorough, particularly those which teach her to think for herself. She +must pass the school's rigid "blindfold" test in which her instructor's +eyes are bandaged so that he is, for practical purposes, blind. She is +then tested under the most difficult conditions, on streets and +intersections and in the heaviest of pedestrian and auto traffic. She +does not look at traffic lights but at traffic. When she passes she can +be certified as ready for her blind master. + +Not every blind person can use a dog guide. Some are too young, many too +old. Some do not like dogs. But conservative estimates indicate that +there are about 10,000 in America who would benefit through a dog guide. +It is understandable that leading workers for the blind, business men and +women, are urging The Seeing Eye to extend its facilities as rapidly as +is consistent with the maintenance of the highest possible standards. + + + THE ESSENTIALS TO SUCCESS + +There are no secrets which The Seeing Eye uses to make the shepherd an +effective guide, but there are several essentials to success. The first +is experience. The knowledge gained by the years of work which have gone +into the development of The Seeing Eye is called upon in the education of +every student. A second essential is that the carefully selected dog is +educated, not trained. She is taught to think for herself and in her +instruction learns certain principles which she can apply to problems she +will meet later. If she reacted only to commands she would be useless in +guiding blind people. Another essential is the fact that she loves to +work. To her, service is a pleasure and not a duty. Her master's hours +are hers. Her main compensation is her master's affection and his utter +reliance on her. + +Blind students, men and women, come to the school in classes of eight, +the maximum an instructor is able to teach at one time. While their major +objective is to learn through practice and instruction how to direct the +dog and follow her guidance, some of them must learn other things, too. +Many of them since blindness have lost the faculty of finding their way +in known surroundings. Others have fallen into the habit of shuffling +feet and groping walk, with body bent forward and hands outstretched. +Some never have walked down stairs unaided. These are things which must +be unlearned if the dog is to bring independence. At The Seeing Eye the +student is taught to free himself from these habits of helplessness, so +that self-reliance and courage gradually return. Anticipation replaces +despair as the dog opens a new world for her master, one he dreamed of +but never hoped to have again. + +All the practice work of the student with his dog takes place on the +streets of Morristown. Here, morning and afternoon each day, the student +gradually assimilates his lessons. Near the end of his month's course he +is able to go easily and fearlessly about the city without an instructor, +just as he will in his various activities on his return home. + + + THE DOG AND HER MASTER ARE INSEPARABLE + +From the time the student is assigned his dog, the two are inseparable. +No one else feeds or cares for her and within a few days the two are +bound together by a mutual affection--a tie which remains unbroken +throughout the years of the dog's working life. Even about the house, +where no guiding is necessary, dog and man are constantly together just +because they want to be. She even sleeps close by her master's bed. + + + NOTE + +For the sake of the story certain qualities have been given "Lady" which +are found in individual German shepherd dogs, though never present in a +blind leader. + + + + + DETECTIVES, INC. + _A Mystery Story for Boys_ + + + + + THEFT IN THE RAIN + + +Joe Morrow, very sleepy, grew conscious of voices coming up from the +porch--the slow drawl of his uncle, Dr. David Stone, and a quicker, +sharper voice. Abruptly the sharper tone scratched at his memory and the +drowsiness was gone. What was Harley Kent doing here? So far as he knew +the man had never visited the house before, and his uncle had never set +foot on the Kent place a quarter of a mile down the road. A word, stark +and clear, came through the bedroom window. Robbery! And suddenly he was +out of bed and slipping into his clothes. + +The morning was cool and fresh after the heavy rain of the night. His +uncle stood at the porch railing, sightless eyes turned off across the +valley, a great, tawny German shepherd dog at his side. Harley Kent +crowded the top step, and Joe noticed that the dog sneezed, and grew +restless, and drew back a step. + +"Lady, easy." Dr. Stone's hand felt for the dog's head and rubbed a +twitching ear. "When did you say it was discovered, Kent?" + +"A little after six o'clock this morning. The maid found a window open +and called me. The wall safe was open, too, and the necklace was gone. +Could I trouble you for a match, Doctor? I've lost my lighter." + +The man stepped upon the porch, and the dog sneezed again and retreated. +Dr. Stone brought forth matches, and Harley Kent had to come close to get +them. Joe was vaguely conscious that his uncle's face had become intent. + +Harley Kent lit a cigar. "I'm not in the habit of keeping jewels in the +house. Mrs. Kent's been in Europe; her ship docks next Monday. We're to +attend a dinner that night, and I knew she'd want the necklace. I took it +out of a safe deposit box a week ago and brought it home." + +Dr. Stone asked a question. "Insured, of course?" "Certainly. Twenty-five +thousand." + +The boy sucked in his breath and wondered what twenty-five thousand +dollars would look like piled up in shining half dollars. The Kent +automobile gleamed in front of the house, and a uniformed chauffeur sat +motionless behind the wheel. + +"You've notified the police?" + +"I tried to, but the storm last night crippled our telephone line. I came +over to use yours." + +"Ours is out, too." + +Harley Kent made an impatient gesture. "That means I'll have to run into +the village." The cigar came out of his mouth. "It was an inside job, +Doctor. Whoever robbed that safe knew how to get into it. It was opened +by combination." + +Dr. Stone said coolly, "That's putting it on your own doorstep." + +Harley Kent shrugged. "Figure it out for yourself. There were only three +of us in the house--Donovan, the chauffeur, the maid, and myself. Two +days ago I forgot to take some papers to New York. I telephoned Donovan +to bring them in. They were in the safe and I had to give him the +combination. Well, I'm off for the village. I understand you were a +police surgeon before----" The man coughed. + +"Yes," said Dr. Stone without emotion. "Before I lost my sight." + +"Well, if you'd like to run over and get the feel of a case again----" + +"It might be interesting," the doctor said slowly. + +Harley Kent went down the steps, a door slammed, and the car rolled away. +Joe had a glimpse of the uniformed figure at the wheel, and spoke in a +hoarse whisper: + +"Will Donovan be put in jail, Uncle David?" + +"Perhaps." The hand came up from the dog's head and tapped the porch +railing thoughtfully. "What time is it, Joe? About eight?" + +"Five after." + +"Two hours," Dr. Stone said as though speaking to himself. Abruptly he +jerked his head. "Time we had breakfast," he added, and boy and dog +followed at his heels. Here, in the home of his widowed sister that had +sheltered him for five years, he knew his way perfectly, and there was +nothing to mark him out as blind as he walked boldly toward the dining +room. And yet at the last moment, his handicap touched him with +uncertainty. He had to put out his hand to make sure of the table and +then fumble for his chair. + +Joe wondered about jails, and was sorry for Donovan. Twice the man had +picked him up on the road and carried him into the village, and once he +had spent a fascinating afternoon in the Kent garage holding tools while +the chauffeur worked on the car. Did they lock a prisoner in a cell and +keep him there night and day? + +His mother's voice cut through his thoughts. "You're going over, David?" + +"I have a reason for wanting to go," the man said. + +Joe's heart throbbed. A reason for going. His throat was husky again. +"Right away, Uncle David? A policeman has to get there while the trail is +hot, doesn't he?" + +"There are some trails," Dr. Stone said in his slow drawl, "that do not +grow cold." + +Out on the porch he filled a pipe and smoked quietly. Joe, watching that +lion head topped by crisp, unruly white hair, wondered if his uncle ever +became excited. He fidgeted and watched a clock; and by and by Dr. Stone +knocked the ashes from his pipe, stood up, and took a dog's harness down +from a nail. + +The dog stretched its great body and held out its head. A stiff leash +rose from either side of the harness and joined a wide, hard handle-grip +at the top. + +"Lady, forward!" + +Slowly, protectingly, the massive animal took Dr. Stone down the steps +and along the concrete walk to the road. + +"Lady, right." + +Without hesitation the dog turned right, the tawny body pressed almost +against the man's left leg. They were off now, and Dr. Stone's body bent +slightly from the waist toward the dog, while his right hand lightly +swung a cane. He might have been gifted with sight, so rapidly did he +walk, so complete was his confidence in his four-footed guide. Joe had to +stretch his legs to keep up with them. They went past fields and +orchards, fences and tangles of wild grape. The doctor's cane, swinging +along, came in contact at last, with a wall of hedge. + +"Kent's place, Joe?" + +"Yes, sir." Joe's throat throbbed with a twitching pulse. + +A telephone repair truck was in the driveway. The dog slowed, and swung +aside, pulling on the leash and changing his course. Without hesitation +Dr. Stone followed the pull, and the dog led him around and past the +truck. They appeared, in their movements, to be one. + +The boy said: "I like to watch him do that." + +"He's my eyes, Joe. Kent's car?" + +"No, sir; a telephone truck. I don't see his car." + +"Not back yet," said the doctor, and whistled soundlessly. They roamed +the grounds. The dog at a rapid pace, took the man along one side of the +house and deftly manoeuvered him around every tree and bush. In the rear +a maid hung a sodden garment on the line and, after a frightened glance +at them, disappeared into the house. The wind blew across the valley and +the wet sleeve of a coat fluttered and swung toward Dr. Stone's face. He +reached out a groping hand, and found the sleeve, and brought it close to +his sightless eyes as though trying to pierce a veil of darkness and make +out the pattern. Bees droned through a blooming lilac and they moved +around to the other side of the house. + +"Joe, is there a pine tree on the place?" + +Pin pricks ran along the boy's spine. His uncle had never been here +before--how did he know about the tree? "Yes, sir." + +"A large tree, heavy-branched?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Take me there. Lady, forward." + +The cane explored the trunk and then slowly tapped the ground. + +"About six feet from the house, Joe?" + +Joe blinked. "How do you know?" + +"Sound echoes," Dr. Stone chuckled. Automobile tires ground the gravel of +the driveway. + +"It's Mr. Kent," said the boy. + +Harley Kent hurried up to them. "Is this village supposed to have a +police force?" he demanded. "Had to wait half an hour for Captain Tucker +to stroll back from breakfast. There could be a dozen murders +committed----" He broke off. "Just a moment, Doctor, and I'll be with +you. It occurs to me I may have left that lighter in another suit----" + +"The maid hung one out to dry," Dr. Stone said. + +"Why, yes." Harley Kent stopped short. "That's it," he added, and was +gone. Presently he was back. "Not there. I suppose it will turn up some +place. Well, come in; come in. The police should be here before long." + +They mounted to the porch and Lady, after the manner of her breed when +trained to work with the blind, stopped with her head directly under the +knob of the strange door. + +"A remarkable animal," Harley Kent said in admiration. "Well, here's +where the job was done, Doctor." + +Joe was conscious of strange tremors. Lady, alert, cocked her head and +sniffed the air with an inquiring nose. The doctor, halting in the arched +doorway leading from the hall, seemed to lose himself in thought. + +"There's a door to the left of this room, Kent?" + +"Yes; it leads into the dining room." + +"And windows in the wall facing this way. They're open now." + +Harley Kent gave a startled grunt. "Doctor, if I didn't know you were +blind----" + +"Air currents," Dr. Stone said laconically. "I feel them on my face. You +feel them, too, but they go unnoticed. You rely on your eyes. The wall +safe, then, should be in the solid wall on the right. Correct, Kent?" + +"I don't understand it," Harley Kent said, still startled. + +The doctor asked an abrupt question. "How high is that safe from the +floor?" + +"Six feet, eight inches." + +"To work the combination without straining a short man would have to +stand upon a chair." + +"Exactly, Doctor. None of the chairs was disturbed; none of the cushions +trampled. I checked that with the maid." + +Dr. Stone's face was impassive. "I gather that means something to you?" + +"What would it mean to you if I told you Donovan was a tall man?" + +The doctor's sightless eyes were fixed straight ahead as though he saw +something that was denied to other men. "Does Donovan know he's +suspected?" + +"He isn't quite a fool." + +A man passed quickly through the hall. Donovan! Joe instinctively stepped +closer to the dog. And suddenly, under his feet, the floor boards creaked +with a loud, harsh, dry protest. + +"Loose boards all over the room," Harley Kent explained. "I never +bothered to have them nailed down. With the safe in this room I looked +upon them as a burglar alarm. And yet, in the uproar of last night's +storm, a cannon ball might have been rolled across the floor and nobody +upstairs would have heard it." His hands made a resigned gesture of +defeat. "No matter how sound you think your plans are, you can never be +sure." + +"No," Dr. Stone said slowly, "there's always a slip." + +The telephone truck was gone, and now another car came up the driveway +and stopped with a squeal of brakes. + +"Captain Tucker has evidently finished his breakfast at last," Harley +Kent said with bitter sarcasm. "He'll want to question Donovan. If you +don't mind, Doctor----" + +"Of course." The doctor took an uncertain step and paused. "I seem to +have lost my bearings, Kent. Would you give me your arm to the door?" + +Joe followed blankly. It was the first time he had ever known his uncle +to lose a sense of direction once established. Behind those blind eyes +the room, in all its essentials, had been mapped. And even if its +outlines had not been printed on a clear mind, the man had only to say, +"Lady, out!" and the dog would have taken him to the door. Why take +Harley Kent's arm? + +Captain Tucker, on the porch, spoke a greeting and passed inside. The +door closed. Down at the end of the gravel where the driveway met the +road, Joe instinctively turned toward home. But Dr. Stone said, "Lady, +right!" and was off toward the village at that amazingly rapid pace. + +"I'm after pipe tobacco, Joe." + +The boy's shorter legs beat a rapid tattoo on the dirt road. "I bought +you some yesterday, Uncle David." + +"An extra tin won't go to waste," the man said casually. + +Hedge and brush were full of fascinating odors that invited sniffing +examination. But the shepherd dog, as though aware that the man who +gripped the handle was in her keeping, went ahead with single-minded +purpose. The dirt road became a paved street and they were in the town. +Lady guided her charge toward the sidewalk, came to a cautious halt at +the curb and waited for her command. + +A voice called: "Dr. Stone! Dr. Stone!" + +Joe saw that it was Tom Bloodgood, the jeweler. They waited, and Lady sat +down on her haunches, watchful and alert. + +"Heard about the robbery out your way, Doctor?" + +"Yes." + +"That's something I'd never expect to happen. I can't understand how a +burglar could have got across that room without waking the dead. The way +that floor creaked----" + +"Kent says the storm drowned all other noise." The doctor's mouth had +grown hard at the corners. "I didn't know you and Kent were on visiting +terms." + +"We're not." + +"But if you knew about those floor boards----" + +"Oh! That was a business call--the only time I was in the house. He sent +for me last Wednesday----" + +The voice stopped, and Joe found the jeweler's eyes resting on him +meaningly. Flushing, the boy took himself out of earshot and pretended to +be absorbed in a store window. Presently his uncle called to him, and +they went down the street to Stevenson's shop, and Joe saw that the tight +lines around the man's mouth had showed much deeper. + +Back on the street the blind man was silent, and walked with quick steps +beside the dog. Half way home a cloud of dust rode toward them, and +Captain Tucker's car came out of the dust. The car stopped. + +"So you didn't arrest Donovan," said the doctor. + +The police officer leaned across the wheel. "Joe must have told you he's +not in the car." + +"Nobody had to tell me," Dr. Stone said mildly. "Captain Tucker, with a +jewel thief in charge, would not be likely to stop for a chat with a +friend. You didn't arrest Donovan?" + +"N--no. Even though you're reasonably sure a man's guilty, you can't +arrest him for robbery unless you have at least some proof. There is no +proof--there's nothing. And he has an alibi. He and the maid have their +rooms in the same wing of the house. She says she couldn't sleep last +night, and sat up and read with her door partly open. She insists Donovan +couldn't pass that door without being seen or heard. If the maid's +telling the truth, Donovan couldn't be the thief; if she isn't telling +the truth, they're both in it. Anyway, if we do arrest Donovan, what +about the necklace? If possible we want to recover that." + +"But you think Donovan did it?" + +"Well, Doctor, let's give it a look. She admits she never sat up all +night reading before. She can't recollect ever leaving her door open +before. Now, why did both those things have to happen last night when the +safe was robbed?" + +"It sounds rather convenient," Dr. Stone said. + +"Too convenient. Too perfect. My idea is that Donovan did the job and the +maid is hiding him. I can figure it all out, but I can't pin it on them. +That girl's too slick for me. I'm going to call in State troopers. Maybe +they'll be able to break down her story." + +The car was gone with a whine of gears, and Joe stretched his legs and +followed his uncle and the dog. Harley Kent's car stood in the driveway. + +"We're at the Kent place, Uncle David." + +"I know." + +"Are we going in?" + +"Sometimes," the doctor said cryptically, "it is best to leave a plum +hang until it falls." The cane made a brisk gesture. "Tonight, Joe." + +To the boy the night was a long way off. A crime had been committed in +the neighborhood, almost under their noses, and the scene of the crime +drew him with an excited, morbid curiosity. Late in the afternoon he +walked back to the Kent place and loitered outside the hedge. He was +there when a car drove in and two State troopers got out. Lean and trim +in their belted uniforms, they looked competent and formidable; and his +eyes, fascinated, clung to the bulges at their hips. An hour later they +came out of the house, and Donovan was with them. The chauffeur was still +with them when the car rolled away. + +Joe ran for home. "Uncle David! They've arrested Donovan." + +"Tucker?" + +"No; State troopers. I saw them take him away." + +"I expected it," Dr. Stone said mildly. Joe, watching him, was presently +aware that he slept peacefully in the depths of the porch chair. So can +the blind, shut out from the light of the world, in turn shut out the +world and drop off into almost instant slumber. + +But at supper time the man was vividly awake. The strong, supple hands +that had made him a surgeon, were suddenly restless and nervous. + +"Joe," he said, "change those hard leather shoes to soft sneakers. +Leather soles make too much noise." + +The order had a sound of mystery and adventure. Joe raced upstairs to his +room. When he came down the day was gone and darkness lay over the +countryside. Lady was already harnessed. Out in the road the boy held to +his uncle's arm and hurried along. Here, walking into a wall of night, he +would by himself have to go slowly. But to his uncle the night presented +no change, nor did it bring up any new handicap. For to Dr. Stone the +world was always dark and black. There was no day or night. + +Kent's car was gone from the driveway. Dr. Stone said: "Easy, Joe; walk +on the grass. Any lights?" + +"Only in the back." + +It seemed to the boy that his uncle made a sound of satisfaction. The +dog, as though sensing the man's desire for caution, led them slowly, +silently. Dr. Stone's cane touched the tree. + +"Lady!" His voice was low. + +The dog was all attention. + +"Lady, search. Fetch." + +Joe was conscious of the black bulk of the house, a black tower that was +the tree, and a blurred shadow moving noiselessly in the grass. Minutes +passed, and his heart pounded in his chest. One moment the dog was near +him, and the next it was gone. And then the shadow stood motionless +beside his uncle. + +"Lady, again," Dr. Stone urged. "Search. Fetch." + +For what? Joe racked his brain and tried to find an answer. Once he heard +the soft sniff of the dog, but could not see it. Suddenly it was beside +his uncle again, motionless as before. How long it had been there he did +not know. + +"We'll go to the house now," Dr. Stone said. + +They crossed to the porch and rang the bell. The living room was all at +once alight, and Harley Kent opened the door. + +"I thought you might be along, Doctor. Come in; come in. It looks as +though we've cleared this thing up." + +"Then the necklace was recovered?" Dr. Stone asked. + +"No--not exactly. They'll sweat Donovan and make him come through. They +took him away this afternoon." + +"So I heard," the doctor said without emotion. "Under arrest?" + +"Technically, no. They took him down for questioning, but--you know how +those things are worked. Keep after him until he opens up and then book +him. The maid slipped." + +"The maid?" + +"Yes. They dragged it out of her a little at a time. Donovan wanted her +to marry him. Yesterday he urged her to marry him and leave for the West +at once. That sounded suspicious, Doctor. With so many now out of work, +why should a man marry and at once throw up his job? To do this he'd have +to have quite a bit of money--and Donovan didn't have any. Or else he'd +have to know how he could raise money very quickly. Get it?" + +"Perfectly." + +"So we sent out the maid and brought in Donovan. He had a smug answer to +the reason for that trip to the West. A friend owned a taxi company in a +western city and wanted him to come on and take the job of manager." + +"He had this friend's letter, of course?" + +Harley Kent laughed. "You're not as easily fooled as that, Doctor? Of +course not. Said he had lost it. So the troopers took him away." + +"That's that," Dr. Stone said after a silence. + +"Exactly. And a lucky thing the girl talked. Up to that point we had +nothing. No finger prints, no sign as to how the window had been forced, +no sign of the necklace. Nothing but an open window and an open safe. It +was as though a bird had flown in and had flown off with the jewels." + +"A bird," Dr. Stone said slowly, and tapped his cane against the floor. +"Nobody thought of that seriously though?" + +"A bird?" Harley Kent stared. + +To Joe's amazement, his uncle appeared in earnest. "Because if they had +taken a bird seriously the next step----" + +"The next step what?" Harley Kent demanded sharply. + +The cane had ceased to tap the floor. "The next step," Dr. Stone said +softly, "would be to look where a bird would naturally fly with such a +bauble." + +Something electric, something unsaid, hung in the air, and Joe shook with +a strange chill. Whatever that something was, it spoke to Lady. The dog +grew restless and growled in its throat. + +"I think we'll be going, Kent," said the doctor. + +"Good night," said Harley Kent. + +Joe clung to his uncle's arm and swallowed with difficulty. A hundred +feet down the road the man halted. + +"Can you see the house from here?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Tell me when the downstairs lights go out." The man found his pipe and +struck a match to the bowl. + +A whippoorwill called musically through the night, and distance softened +the hoot of an owl. Frogs croaked in a meadow and a rabbit stirred in the +brush. Joe shifted from foot to foot, and wondered what was to come next. +Twice cars passed them going into town, and off over the hill a dog +howled. And then, without warning, the oblongs of downstairs windows +disappeared and the roof was a dark patch against the sky. + +"The lights are out," the boy whispered. + +Dr. Stone put away the pipe. "Joe, you'd better run home." + +The boy had not expected this. "But----" + +"Sorry, Joe. I can handle this better alone. You might only be in the +way. Run along, and I'll tell you all about it in the morning." + +"But if----" + +"No ifs. Lady's here, and I'll be perfectly all right. Off, now." + +Without another word the boy trudged away. Once he looked back, and could +just distinguish his uncle's form. Again he looked back, and man and dog +were gone. His steps slowed and ceased. He stood listening. + +The whippoorwill had ceased to call, and only the chorus of frogs broke +the stillness of the night. By and by he moved again, back the way he had +come. The sneaks made his progress almost soundless. Had Uncle David told +him to wear them so that they could go unnoticed to the pine tree? Why +the tree? + +Man and dog were gone from where he had left them. The tree lingered in +his mind. Avoiding the driveway he crept across the grass. A dark pillar, +darker than the night, loomed ahead. It was the tree. He dropped to the +ground and, hugging his knees, sat there and was almost afraid to +breathe. + +There was no moon, and the gloom was filled with subtle alarms. Donovan +was probably in a cell, caged and helpless. What would happen to the +maid? And why that intangible something that had hung between Uncle David +and Harley Kent? He grew cramped and shifted his position. It must be +late. Where was his uncle? He strained his eyes toward the tree but could +see nothing. + +Suddenly every faculty was sharpened and drawn tight. He thought he had +heard a sound. Slowly he relaxed. It must have been the wind. And then he +heard it again. This time there could be no mistake. There had been a +subdued, almost indistinct scraping. + +Silence again, and darkness, and that vague alarm. The silence grew +painful. A leaf, fluttering down, touched his face and a chill ran +through his bones. Why should a leaf fall from a tree in early spring? +And then the stillness was broken by a ringing call: + +"Kent, it's no go." + +A voice strangled and strained, came down out of the tree. "Who the devil +are you?" + +"Dr. Stone. You can't get away with it, Kent. Tell them any story you +like, but be sure you have Donovan released at once. Lady, home!" + +Man and dog emerged out of the night, and Joe flattened out and hugged +the ground. + +"Come along, Joe," the doctor said. + +The boy stood up, abashed, and took his uncle's arm. "How did you know I +was there?" + +"Ears--a blind man's ears. When you came in Lady remained quiet. That +meant she recognized someone she trusted. There could be only one +answer--you. Do you realize you might have ruined everything? That's why +I sent you home. One suspicious sound from outside the house and our +quarry might have taken alarm." + +Joe wet his lips. "It was Mr. Kent?" + +"Of course. Donovan? I had my doubts from the start. Kent told a smooth +story. He had had to give Donovan the combination, and the safe had been +opened by combination. It was a tall man's safe, and Donovan was a tall +man. It fitted together perfectly, Joe--too perfectly. Remember when I +asked Kent to lead me to the door? I wanted to learn something--and I +learned it. Kent is a tall man, too. I might have asked you, but to a boy +all men seem tall." + +"The maid's story was perfect, too," Joe said hesitatingly. + +"Two perfect stories," Dr. Stone agreed. "It became a matter of picking +the true from the false, and Kent rang false from the start." + +"I don't understand, Uncle David." + +"Let's analyze it. When Kent came to the house Lady sneezed and drew +away. Two weeks ago I upset a bottle of bay rum; it ran into her eyes and +nose. She's been shy of bay rum since. When Kent said he'd lost his +lighter and asked for a match he reeked with bay rum and talcum. The maid +had awakened him at six o'clock, and he reached our house at eight. Two +striking facts, Joe. Does a man, finding his house robbed in the night, +calmly go upstairs and make a careful toilet? Does he wait two hours +before going to a telephone to call the police? + +"Well, we went to his place. He wasn't home, and we wandered about the +grounds. That was pure luck. We found the wet suit. I asked you if there +was a pine tree on the place." + +"Why, Uncle David?" + +"Because that suit reeked with pine. We found that the tree was only six +feet from the house and heavy-branched, which meant that some of the +branches grew close to the house. And so now we had a robbery in the +rain, a pine tree, and a dripping suit of Harley Kent's that reeked with +pine. The facts were all unrelated, but I began to wonder if the tree had +played a part in the robbery. + +"Then Kent came back, and his first thought was to look in the wet suit +for the missing lighter. When I mentioned the suit on the line he said +nothing to indicate alarm. But a blind man's ears are sharp. They are +quick to catch shades of sound in a voice. I knew he was disturbed +because we had chanced upon that suit. Now, why should he be upset? Wet +clothing is not uncommon after a wild rainstorm. + +"We went to town for tobacco, and ran into Tom Bloodgood. That was +another stroke of luck. For Bloodgood told me Kent had called him to the +house to value a necklace. The jewelry market has fallen this last year, +and Tom gave Kent a valuation of about $15,000. The moment Bloodgood told +me that I thought I saw the picture. + +"Kent's a market speculator. Evidently he had been hit and needed money. +Apparently he didn't want to have the necklace appraised in New York +where he was fairly well known--such things leak out and sometimes affect +a man's credit. After he learned what the necklace would bring in the +market he must have done some thinking. If he sold it, he'd realize +$15,000. If it were stolen he'd collect $25,000 from the insurance +company. The reason he had shaved and waited two hours to call the police +took on significance. It began to look as though Kent had staged a +convenient robbery. Collect for the jewels and still have them. Later he +might break up the necklace and sell the pearls separately. It's been +done before." + +"Why didn't you tell Captain Tucker, Uncle David?" + +"Oh, no. Tucker would have immediately searched the tree, and Kent could +have got the incriminating suit out of the way and made the charge that +Donovan had hidden the necklace in the pine. There was only one way. +Scare Kent. Send him out into the tree in a panic. And then catch him in +the act. + +"So tonight we called upon Kent. I was searching for a way to alarm him, +and he opened the door himself by mentioning birds. The moment I spoke of +a search of a tree he froze. After that it was merely a matter of waiting +for him to come forth to remove the proof of his guilt." + +They were almost at Joe's house. The boy turned a puzzled thought in his +mind. + +"But, Uncle David----" + +"Yes." + +"Even if there was pine on his coat it wouldn't be proof he'd been in a +pine tree." + +"True," Dr. Stone agreed. "That's what sent me searching for the absolute +proof." + +Light broke upon the boy. "I see it now. You found something?" + +"This." The man held out his hand. + +In the darkness the boy could not see what lay in the hand. "What is it, +Uncle David?" + +"The missing cigar lighter," Dr. Stone said quietly. "It fell out of +Kent's pocket while he was hiding the jewels. Lady found it for me under +the tree." + + + + + VOICES IN THE NIGHT + + +"Go on ahead, Joe," Dr. David Stone said. "The boat will probably need +bailing. I'll have Jerry fix your rod. Won't take ten minutes." + +Joe Morrow gripped the can of worms and was gone. Dr. Stone said, "Right, +Lady," and, gripping the harness-handle, followed the dog toward Jerry +Moore's garage. + +Sound came to the doctor's ears--the rasp of a tool and, abruptly, the +sharp tapping of a finger against glass. The dog deftly steered him +around an automobile. Jerry's voice came from under the car. + +"That you, Doctor?" + +"Yes." + +"Thought those were Lady's paws. With you in a few minutes." + +Dr. Stone moved toward the little office. A voice said, "He's blind, +Rog." The tapping had stopped. + +But well able to hear, the doctor thought with grim humor, and listened +from the doorway. Voices came from the garage floor--Jerry Moore's, the +nervous voice that had said, "He's blind, Rog," and the mellow, genial +tones of a third man. + +"This brake-rod"--grunt--"sure was loose." That was Jerry. "Quite a +contraption you've got under here." + +"My own idea," the genial voice said. "Why smear up a car when you can +pack them where they're out of the way?" + +The job was done, and presently the car backed out of the garage. Jerry +came to the office. + +"What won't folks think up next?" he demanded. "Fishing fellows, those +two who just went out. Stopping off to try Horseshoe Lake. Got a long +metal box bolted in under the floor boards. Out of sight and out of the +way. Got room in that box for a hundred pounds along with ice." + +"Fish?" Dr. Stone asked a trifle sharply. + +The garageman cackled. "Sure; a regular ice-box on wheels. How come they +pick here for fishing? Nobody's taken a bass out of Horseshoe in years, +and danged few pickerel. Want that rod mended?" + +A horn blew at the pumps. Jerry put the rod down and hurried outside, and +Dr. Stone walked to the door. A hoarse voice said: "Two quarts of +medium." A moment later the voice rasped harshly: "Get away from that +hood. Can't you see I've brought a can for the oil?" + +"Easy, brother," Jerry soothed. "No harm done." + +"Keep away from the hood, that's all." + +The car rolled away, and filled the night with the low, smooth thunder of +its exhaust. The doctor's ears registered and catalogued sounds. Only a +high-priced motor could sound like that--and only a piece of tin could +rattle as the car rattled. A queer intentness twitched at the corners of +the blind man's mouth. + +"That's queer," Jerry observed. "Two cars in a row, and they both had +something hidden. This last boiler was all of seven-eight years old, and +shabby as a beggar's coat. Had something under that hood, though, he was +powerful anxious for no one to see. What do you make of it, Doctor?" + +"Coincidence," the doctor said mildly. Two cars, and each with something +hidden. Lady's tail thumped the floor, and Joe Morrow came into the +office and stood around. The doctor's ears, registering an unseen world +by sound, caught the tempo of the boy's restless feet. Bursting with +something, the blind man decided. The rod mended at last, man and boy and +dog came out to the street, and Lady led them toward the lake. + +Joe's voice trembled. "A car pulled out just as I came back, Uncle David. +You know that cobbled road that runs off from Main street, and goes down +into the hollow behind the cottonwoods and rises to the back door of the +bank?" + +"The road the express wagon uses when it takes money to and from the +bank?" + +"Yes, sir." The boy swallowed with a gulp. "I saw that car in there twice +today, just sort of hanging around." + +An automobile, making speed, went up the street with a low drone of +power. + +"There she goes now," Joe cried, excited. + +"A wonderful motor," said Dr. Stone. + +"That's just it, Uncle David. A shabby old car with a pip of a motor. +What for? A quick getaway?" + +The doctor whistled softly under his breath, and said nothing. Through +the black, moonless night Lady led them at her fast pace to an opening in +the reeds and out upon planking that led to the boats. Joe got in first, +steadied the craft, and helped in his uncle. The boy rowed with an almost +soundless stroke, and presently shipped the oars and dropped anchor. And +then they waited for the catfish to bite. + +Joe marked Main street by a reflected ribbon of radiance thrown against +the night sky. Water lapped against the boat, and moving lights crawled +across the distant toll-bridge. Dr. Stone said, "Not much action, Joe," +and the headlights of a car swept toward the lake. They stopped near the +planking and snapped out. By and by oars creaked and splashed loudly, a +dark shape moved toward the toll-bridge, and voices came across the +water. + +"Why the toll-bridge, Rog?" the sharp voice asked. + +"Use your head," the genial voice answered. "There's plenty of light down +there. Somebody may see us trying to haul in a big one." + +"You're sure of the time?" + +"We got the word, didn't we?" + +"Fast work," the sharp voice said dubiously. + +"Well, why not?" A genial chuckle came across the water. "Everybody knows +you couldn't get a decent fish out of this lake with a dragnet. So we +pull out." + +The oars splashed and creaked, and the sharp voice was lost. And then the +genial voice came again: + +"We'll pull out about five, roll up and get in line, step on the gas, and +make Baltimore in time for breakfast. After that, let John try to find +us." + +Joe got a bite and missed his fish. So these two men, whoever they were, +planned to play hide and seek with somebody named John. But his mind, +presently, came back to the shabby car with the powerful motor that had +hidden itself twice in the cobbled road behind the cottonwoods where it +could not be seen from Main street. + +"What do you think that car was doing there, Uncle David?" the boy asked. + +"If I knew," Dr. Stone said dryly, "I'd be able to give more attention to +this fishing-line." + +A tingling tremor ran along the boy's spine. So Uncle David thought that +strange car worth worrying about! Lady moved in the boat, and the +flat-bottomed craft pitched and wobbled. The fish weren't biting, and the +dog was probably cramped. The boy pulled up the anchor. A steady, +rhythmic splashing came through the night. + +"They're rowing back," Dr. Stone said. + +Joe's oars made scarcely a ripple. Tied up at the planking, he shipped +the oars before helping his uncle from the boat. "No fish and a million +mosquito bites," the doctor drawled, and they went up the soggy path +through the reeds. Oars rattled behind them and somebody stamped on the +planking. A car was parked in the high grass above the rutted road that +paralleled the lake; even in the darkness there was a lustrous sheen of +paint and of shining metal. One of Lady's harness straps had loosened. +The doctor bent down to draw it tight, and footsteps came up the +planking. + +"Rog!" The sharp voice snapped. "There's somebody at the car." + +"Don't move!" The genial voice was all at once icy and deadly. "If you've +been monkeying----" + +Joe shivered. Lady, as though recognizing the threat in that voice, had +become stiff and taut. The boy's hand, feeling for her, met the bristling +hairs along her spine. + +Dr. Stone stood up. "No threats, if you please," he said coolly. + +Joe marveled that, blind, his uncle could face this unknown hazard with +unruffled calm. But then, of course, there was Lady. The dog was like a +tempered spring, wound. + +The man called Rog flew into a rage. "None of your soft talk. What are +you doing at that car? By God, if----" + +Lady gave an ominous, warning growl. The threat stopped as though a gag +had been rammed down the speaker's throat. + +"It's the blind man, Rog," the sharp voice said; "the blind man and a +boy." + +Lady continued to growl a deep warning. A form backed away quickly, and +the deadly chill went out of Rog's voice, and he was genial and mellow. + +"A thousand apologies, sir. The business of jacking up a car and stealing +the tires has become so widespread----. You understand, sir?" + +"Perfectly," Dr. Stone said blandly, and quieted the dog. The car backed +around and lurched through the ruts, but not until it was well on its way +were the lights turned on. + +"What did they look like?" Dr. Stone asked. + +"I couldn't see their faces," the boy answered; "it was too dark." + +"What make of car?" + +"I'm not sure." + +"No matter." The doctor spoke to Lady and the dog, sure-footed, led them +through the night. Jerry Moore was closing the garage and Ike Boles, the +station agent, gave them a toothless grin. + +"Hear about the telegram that came this afternoon, Doctor? Fellow named +John's glad to hear the fishing's good and aims to come up tomorrow on +the 8:11 from New York." + +Memory jingled the wires in Joe's brain. Was this the same John Rog and +his companion were anxious to avoid? + +"Somebody," Dr. Stone said mildly, "is evidently playing a little joke on +John. Who was the telegram for, Ike?" + +"Fellow named Carl Metz. Can't find hide or hair of him hereabouts. +Telegram's lying undelivered at the station. Anybody hear tell of a Carl +Metz?" + +The intent look that Joe knew so well had come to the corners of the +doctor's mouth. "Jerry, remember the man with the husky voice who +wouldn't let you lift the hood? He had a faint accent. What would you +call it?" + +"German," Jerry said promptly. + +And Carl Metz was a German name. A slow excitement twitched through Joe's +nerves, and he followed his blind uncle and the dog up the quiet street. + +"Who's the man with the husky voice, Uncle David?" + +"You've seen him." + +"Where?" + +"Hiding a shabby car in the cobbled road." + +"But----" Heat throbbed in the boy's pulse. "But if he's the one who's +expecting John, what about Rog and the other fellow? Why are _they_ +running away from this John?" + +"I don't know--yet," the doctor said. + +Until late that night he smoked his pipe and paced the porch; and Lady, +who read the signs of his unrest, gave the short whine of a worried dog +and watched him narrowly. In the morning, when he awoke, Joe had already +gone to school. Mrs. Morrow said: "Joe seemed frightfully excited about +something, David." Tight lines formed about the sightless eyes. Bringing +the lawn-mower from the side of the house, he began to cut the grass. The +lawn was a map in his mind--so many paces to every walk and shrub. He was +running the mower near the front gate when a droning throb of power +roared up the road and stopped with a squeal of brakes. + +"Stranger," said a husky voice, "they tell me there's a bad, +little-traveled hill around here." + +Seconds passed. "Why, yes," the doctor said slowly. "Three miles on +there's a fork to the right; it takes you to Kill Horse Hill." + +"Pretty steep?" + +"It's downright wicked." + +"Any chance," the hoarse voice asked, "of running into other cars out +there?" + +"None," the doctor assured him; and abruptly the car, rattling loosely, +was gone. + +The blind man pushed the mower aside and walked thoughtfully to the +porch. At noon Joe arrived, breathless. + +"Uncle David! I took a look into the cobbled road before school this +morning. That car was there again, hidden behind the cottonwoods." + +"I think," Dr. Stone said, "I'll walk into town this afternoon." + +Something dark and sinister was going on under cover, and it was time +somebody spoke to Police Captain Tucker and the bank. Lady, as though +sensing a need for speed, led him toward the village at a pace faster +than the pace of a man with sight. Suddenly heavy, rapid footfalls grew +loud and clear. Somebody was running with mad haste. Somebody----? The +doctor's ears, sharp as only a blind man's are sharp, picked a familiar +rhythm from the furious stride. + +"Joe! Why aren't you at school?" + +The boy panted. "Wanted--to tell you--the bank----" Breath failed him. + +"Robbed?" Dr. Stone demanded sharply. + +"The--express wagon. Had money--for the bank--that came in--on No. 5." + +"The cobbled road?" + +"Yes, sir." The boy's breath was easier. "In that hollow behind the +cottonwoods that you can't see from Main street. Captain Tucker was in +the wagon with the driver. When they got into the hollow there was a man +lying in a pool of blood. They jumped out, and it was only a stuffed +figure, and the blood was red paint. Somebody they couldn't see said to +put up their hands, and Captain Tucker started to spin around and a shot +knocked off his cap." + +"And after that he kept his hands up?" + +"Yes, sir. Next thing a bag was over his head and one over the driver's, +and they were tied up and chucked into the truck. By and by somebody +found them and the money was gone." + +"Much?" + +"Twenty-two thousand dollars. They're looking for that shabby car." + +"I don't think they'll have to look far," Dr. Stone said grimly. "Lady, +forward." Again the rapid pace that ate up distance. "What time did the +hold-up happen, Joe?" + +"Twenty of twelve." + +"Twenty--You're positive of that?" + +"That's what everybody says. No. 5 got in at half-past eleven. Gosh, +Uncle David, if we had told Captain Tucker last night about that car----" + +"I don't think it would have made any difference," the doctor said +slowly. The blind eyes had puckered again with a queer expression of +baffled uncertainty. Opposite the garage he spoke to Lady, and the dog, +obedient, led him in toward the pumps. + +"Jerry about?" + +The mechanic answered. "No, Doctor; had to go up-country with the wrecker +to bring down a busted car. Hear about the hold-up?" + +"Yes. Any talk about the getaway?" + +"Nobody saw a car come up out of that road, Doctor. Tucker doesn't know. +He had a bag over his head, and the express engine was running, and, +lying on the floor, all he could hear was his own motor. Looks like +whoever planned it, planned it neat." + +"About twenty-two thousand dollars?" + +"Twenty-eight thousand. Everybody had it twenty-two thousand at first, +but it was twenty-eight thousand. Twenty thousand in paper money, and +eight thousand in silver." + +"In silver?" The doctor stood very still and broke into an almost +soundless whistle. Joe's heart hammered against his ribs. He knew the +sign--his uncle's mind, back in its shroud of darkness, had touched +something tangible and significant. Quietly, after a long minute of +thought, the blind man walked into the office, groped about the desk for +the telephone, and called the railroad station. + +"Ike, this is Dr. Stone. Did you find Carl Metz and deliver the +telegram?" + +"I did not. I can't find a man of the name." + +"Did this man John arrive?" + +"If he did he's a ghost. I watched the train for a look at who it might +be was coming to Horseshoe for good fishing, and not a stranger got off." + +"What time did his train get in?" + +"Eleven-thirty." + +Dr. Stone's voice snapped into the transmitter. "Is that the train that +leaves New York at 8:11?" + +"The same," said Ike; "No. 5 on the train-sheet, and the money that was +stolen in the baggage car." + +The receiver went back upon the hook. The blind man was on his feet. + +"What time is it, Joe?" + +"Half-past two." + +"If we hurry----" The doctor was out the door, following Lady at an +amazingly fast pace. Joe had to half run. + +"Where are we going, Uncle David?" + +"To the toll-bridge." + +Horseshoe Lake rippled with golden sun. Sid Malloy, the bridge-tender, +collected toll and Captain Tucker, grim and dour, with a ghastly black +hole in the top of his cap, inspected the inside of every car. He frowned +at sight of Dr. Stone, the boy and the dog. + +"Doctor," he said bluntly, "this is no place for a blind man; and as for +a boy----" + +"Go inside, Joe," the doctor said mildly. "Keep out of the way. If +trouble starts, duck low and hug the floor. Is your gun handy, Captain?" + +"I always have my gun," Captain Tucker growled. + +"Presently I may speak to one of the cars that stops to pay toll. Never +mind questions. Have your gun out and cover that car." + +The captain had had a bad day and was nettled. "Wild west stuff?" he +asked. + +"You wouldn't want the next bullet to go a little lower than your cap, +would you, Captain?" + +Joe sucked in a gasping breath. If there was shooting, what chance would +a blind man stand? The question had a sobering effect, and the police +captain's voice shed some of its bad wire. + +"You're waiting for a car, Doctor?" + +"Yes." + +"What kind of car?" + +"I don't know." + +"Can you describe whoever'll be in it?" + +"No." + +Temper flamed suddenly in the harassed man. "Look here, Doctor, if you +don't know what car it is, or what whoever's in it looks like, you'd +better leave this business for those----" + +"Who can see?" Doctor Stone asked mildly. "Sometimes the blindest persons +have eyes." + +A car stopped at the toll-house and, while Sid Malloy collected the toll, +Captain Tucker opened the doors and inspected the inside. A clock in a +village church tower struck three, and the midafternoon traffic thickened +and converged upon the bridge. Cars rolled upon the bridge approach, and +stopped, and rolled on again, and the sound was like the beat of some +large machine. + +Forgotten by Captain Tucker, for there was much work to be done and the +police officer was busy probing into automobiles, Dr. Stone and Lady +stood just outside the toll-house door. The smoke of a seasoned pipe +drifted blue and fragrant with the breeze. Joe, trembling inside the +toll-house, could see his uncle's face. It was stamped with the calm, +bland, inscrutable patience of the blind. + +Automobiles shuttled past, and there was a delay as each car was +scrutinized. A line formed, and horns began to honk impatiently. Joe, +twisting his head to see how far back the line extended, was frozen by +the cold crack of his uncle's voice. + +"I'm ready for you, Tucker." + +The boy wrenched himself around. The movement had changed his position; +the sun, slanting in through the doorway, was in his eyes. The blurred +outline of a car was in front of the house, and he was conscious of his +uncle moving toward the car. Fire burned in his throat, and the world +hung in a stark silence. And out of that silence came his uncle's voice. + +"Rog," Dr. Stone drawled, "I'm afraid you're going to miss your breakfast +in Baltimore tomorrow." + +There was an oath and a movement in the car. Joe, frozen, forgot to +crouch and hug the floor. When would the shooting start? And then another +form was beside his uncle, and the sun glinted menacingly on cold, blue +steel. + +"Keep your hands up where I can see them," Captain Tucker ordered. + +Joe, sick with relief, felt his knees begin to buckle and bend. + +Two hours later he sat in a room in the red-bricked Town Hall with his +uncle and Captain Tucker. The captain, putting down a telephone, leaned +far back in his chair and gave a sigh. + +"That was New York calling," he announced. "They've picked up John. He +worked for the New York bank that shipped the money. The bank here has +counted the shipment and it's all there down to the last nickel." His +eyes went slowly from the boy to the dog and to the blind man. "Doctor, I +don't know how you did it. We were all looking for that shabby car----" + +"That car had me fooled for a while," Dr. Stone admitted. "Joe had me +convinced it was motored for a quick getaway. This morning the car +stopped at our place and the driver asked for directions. He wanted a bad +hill, and I sent him to Kill Horse. When Joe came along with news of the +hold-up, I started here to tell you where that car could be found; but +when I learned that the hold-up took place at twenty minutes of twelve +the shabby car was washed right out of the picture." + +"Why?" Captain Tucker demanded. + +"Because within a minute or two of 11:40 the driver of that car was +asking me for directions. He couldn't have been in two places at once." + +"Why were you sure it was the shabby car?" + +"A blind man's ears, Captain--the sound of the motor and the driver's +husky voice. And all at once I knew why he had surrounded himself with so +much mystery--afraid to have Jerry Moore look under the hood, hiding down +behind the cottonwoods when he did lift the hood, anxious to find a steep +hill little used by other cars. The man was, without question, +experimenting with a carburetor of his own design, and afraid somebody +would get a slant at it before he was ready to have it patented." + +Captain Tucker pursed his lips and rocked in his chair. "I follow you +that far, Doctor, but how did you pick up Rog?" + +"I didn't," Dr. Stone said mildly; "he dropped into my lap. Let's begin +at the beginning. I met Rog and his companion at Jerry's garage, and +Jerry had seen that storage-box under the car. It struck me as strange +that a fisherman should try to keep fish fresh by placing them under a +car and next to a red-hot exhaust pipe. Later, while Joe and I were on +the lake----" + +"That was last night?" the captain interrupted. + +"Yes. A boat passed us; I recognized the voices of Rog and his friend. I +learned that they knew there were few fish in the lake. Now, why had +these men come prepared to pack fish in ice if they knew there were no +fish? I found they planned to leave today--roll into line about three +o'clock, they said--and that they wanted to avoid somebody named John. +Coming ashore, Ike Boles told us of a telegram that had come from John. +Now, if this was their John, why should they tell him the fishing was +good if they knew it wasn't? On the other hand, the telegram was directed +to a Carl Metz, and nobody knew a Carl Metz. Who was Carl Metz? The +driver of the shabby car spoke with a German accent. Was he Carl Metz? If +so, why was he never seen fishing? The thing was rather complicated." + +"I don't see yet how you figured it out," Captain Tucker complained. + +"I didn't," Dr. Stone chuckled. "It burst upon me. After the elimination +of the shabby car, Rog lingered in my mind. I stopped at Jerry's garage; +talking to Jerry might bring forth some overlooked fact that might prove +illuminating. But Jerry was not there, and his mechanic dropped a +bomb-shell--there was eight thousand dollars in silver in the stolen +money. I began to wonder if there might be two Johns: the John who sent a +telegram from New York, and the John whom Rog mentioned, an entirely +different John----" + +"You mean----" Captain Tucker broke in suddenly. + +"Yes; John Law. The crook's name for the police. Why should they run from +the police? Was it this hold-up? Eight thousand dollars in silver is +something you cannot hide in your vest pocket or under your hat. They +wouldn't ride with it thrown into a car; a police drag-net would probably +be searching cars. That silver would have to be carried where it would +defy search. Where better than a storage-box hidden away under a car, +particularly if we remember two things: First, these men had said it was +an ice-box for fish. Second, they knew they weren't going to get any +fish. It held together except for one weak link." + +"What was that?" + +"Had they received word from New York that this money was coming? That +stuffed figure lying in the cobbled road meant just one thing--the +highwaymen not only knew that money was coming but they knew it was +coming on No. 5. In order to know that they must have received a message. +That telegram came into the puzzle again. I called Ike Boles. He had not +found Carl Metz; he had watched the train that should have brought John +and no stranger had got off. John had said he would leave New York on the +8:11. The 8:11 was No. 5." + +Captain Tucker scratched a puzzled head. "But if nobody got that +message----" + +"Captain, let's suppose they know whatever message was sent would be +filed in New York at a certain time. What better safeguard than to send +it to a name unknown here? What's to prevent the one to whom that message +is really intended loitering about the station and listening for it to +click into the office?" + +"You're assuming they know telegraphy?" + +"I wasn't assuming, captain; I knew. Last night, when I walked into +Jerry's while he was looking over that storage-box, fingers began to tap +a window. It was a message. It said: 'Too much attention; let's scram.' I +knew those men could read Morse." + +Captain Tucker stood up. "Doctor, any time you'd like a job as a +detective----" He broke off short. "What made you so sure they wouldn't +make their getaway up-country?" + +"I heard Rog say they'd roll into line. There's only one spot in this +village where a car has to roll into line. That's at the toll-bridge." + +Out in the village street Dr. Stone filled his pipe and puffed +contentedly. Rog's car stood in the police driveway beside the Town Hall; +and the steel storage-box, wrenched loose by crowbar and hammer, lay upon +the ground. + +"You took a chance, Uncle David," Joe said hoarsely. "If that car had +slipped past----" + +"Rog threatened us on the lake path last night," the blind doctor said +mildly. "If I had released the harness-grip Lady would have torn him +down. I knew only two persons in town who had met the car, or Rog: Jerry, +and he was up-country. You; but it was dark last night and you wouldn't +have recognized the car. That put it up to Lady." + +Joe blinked. + +"If you owned a dog," Dr. Stone went on, "it would be your dog. I'm +blind. Lady knows it. Lady believes she owns me, and she never forgets. +To her Rog will always mean danger--to me." + +"Oh!" Light broke upon the boy. "Then Lady----" + +"Yes," said Dr. Stone. "I knew when Rog's car stopped at the toll-house. +Lady growled." + + + + + THE UNKNOWN FOUR + + +Dr. David Stone, walking rapidly beside Lady, seemed unaware of the +penetrating chill of the pale, thin dawn. His broad shoulders swung with +his stride, his coat was open, and no hat covered the white hair of his +magnificently-formed head. But Joe Morrow, his nephew, huddled down into +a turtle-neck sweater and shivered. + +"Joe," said Dr. Stone, "I shouldn't have let you come along on this. +You've never seen a dead man before." + +Chill shook the boy's teeth. "A dead man can't hurt anybody." + +"True; but this may be nasty business. Captain Tucker says old Anthony +was murdered." + +The boy sucked in his breath and was momentarily sorry the telephone that +had called his uncle had awakened him. Crows, cawing faintly, loomed +against the early light of the cold sky. The grass was wet, and saturated +the bottoms of his trousers. + +"They--they don't know who did it?" + +"That's the trouble, Joe. So many persons might have wanted to." Since +turning into Meadow Road the doctor had been counting paces, and now his +voice changed abruptly. "We should be near there." + +"It's right ahead, Uncle David." + +Dr. Stone said, "Lady, left," and the great, tawny dog turned obediently. +They went up a weed-bordered path to a house that had once been noble, +but which now lay in peeled-paint neglect. + +Captain Tucker let them in. Four men sat in a room off the hall, and they +watched the doorway in silence as Dr. Stone and the dog appeared. Joe, +crowding at his uncle's heels, was conscious of a studied ease and a +cautious wariness in all of them. He identified them as Police Captain +Tucker made them known to the blind man--Ted Lawton, marked by a certain +furtiveness; Ran Freeman, cool and self-contained; Fred Waring, silently +grim, and Otis King, dapper and assured. Lady, restless on her leash, +suddenly gave an eerie, dismal whine. + +Waring flared. "Stop that confounded dog." + +"She knows," Dr. Stone said quietly, "that there has been death here--by +violence." + +Ice ran in Joe's veins. Otis King lit a cigarette and calmly meditated +the glowing end. The doctor said, "Lady, chair," and the dog led him to a +seat. Freeman, sitting on a stool in front of a piano, dropped one arm +and the elbow awoke a crashing, jangling chord. + +Lawton jumped. "Did you have to do that?" + +"Better take something for your nerves," Freeman said mildly, and ran one +hand soundlessly over the keys of the piano. + +Captain Tucker's voice bit into the silence. "One of you four has every +right to be nervous." He turned to Dr. Stone. "I sent for you, Doctor, +because I am baffled. All four of these men came here late yesterday. +Cagge says----" + +"Who's Cagge?" the doctor broke in. + +"Old Anthony Fitch's servant. He says all four quarreled violently with +Anthony last night, and that the old man cackled at them, and goaded +them, and invited them to remain so that today the comedy could be +resumed. About eleven o'clock he went off to bed, holding to Cagge's arm, +after telling the servant to show the visitors to rooms." + +"And then?" the doctor asked. + +"Cagge says he awoke about three o'clock this morning and heard groans. +He went to Anthony's room, and there he found the old man crumpled on his +bed. He had been struck on the temple by a heavy brass candlestick that +lay on the floor. Cagge says he tried to speak, and muttered one word +several times before he died." + +"That word was?" + +"Four. Over and over again. 'Four, four, four.' What do you make of it?" + +Slowly Doctor Stone filled a pipe, struck a match, and puffed in +unhurried contemplation. "It may be, Tucker, he meant that all four were +concerned in his murder." + +Otis King laughed. "Doctor," he said easily, "that shot misses the +target. There isn't one of us trusts any of the other three. You couldn't +get us into a combine." + +"You must know each other," the doctor observed. + +Fred Waring jumped angrily to his feet. "Look here, Doctor----" + +Lady growled deep in her throat, and Waring slumped into a chair and +watched the dog. + +"Then," Dr. Stone said slowly, "if all of you are not concerned, one +man's hand is stained with blood." + +Freeman still continued to run his hand soundlessly across the keys. +Lawton gave the doctor a quick, sidelong glance, and stared down at the +floor. + +"Which one?" King asked coolly; and now, for the first time Joe noticed +that he alone, of the four in the room, was fully dressed. + +Dr. Stone's hand touched the dog's head. "I may tell you--later. First, I +should like to know how all of you happened to arrive here yesterday. Did +the old man invite you?" + +"No," Otis King drawled; "but I rather fancy he expected us. Did you know +he was writing a book? It was to be one of those brutally frank +things--fire the gun and let the shots hit whom they may. Anthony dropped +each of us a letter. We were to be in the book. So, knowing Anthony, we +all raced for the Grand Central and met on the same train." + +"And killed him," Dr. Stone said. + +"Some one did," King admitted blandly. "And I'm not denying that any of +the four of us had reason to do the job." + +Fred Waring spoke bitterly. "You always did talk too much, Otis." He +lapsed into silence, and presently spoke to the doctor. "If you knew +Anthony Fitch--" + +"Perhaps I do," the doctor said mildly. "For several years he was mixed +up in shady transactions, but managed to stay just inside the law. +Slippery, and clever, and unscrupulous." + +"That was Anthony on the outside," Waring said passionately. "Inside he +was vindictive, and cold, and merciless. Those claw-like hands of his +were the talons of a hawk. He took a pleasure in refined torture. Years +ago we were all tied up with him, and--" + +"You don't have to go into that," Ted Lawton cried warningly. + +"I'm not going to. Anyway, we broke away, and one of his schemes failed. +He told us then that some day he'd pay the score. Lately he set out to +write a book. It was to be called 'Confessions of a Rascal.'" + +"I see." The doctor's face was expressionless. "Naturally, you gentlemen +objected to being included in the book." + +Waring ripped out an oath. "He had gone back fifteen years to rake open +old sores. God, man, do you know what that meant? We thought we had lived +down those old mistakes. We had established ourselves. I am cashier at a +manufacturing plant. King is manager of a branch brokerage house. Lawton +is in business for himself. Ran Freeman is engaged to marry Lilly +Panner----" + +Dr. Stone sat up straight. "The Calico Heiress?" + +Freeman's fingers still played imaginary music. "Exactly, Doctor," he +said quietly. "The newspapers have made the family fairly well known. +Fine old traditions--that sort of thing. Let this book of Anthony's +appear and my marriage to Miss Panner would be overboard." + +"And with it the Panner fortune," the doctor observed dryly. + +"That, too," Ran Freeman admitted without emotion. + +The pipe had gone out. The blind man ran the bowl absently along one +sleeve. Dishes clattered in the kitchen. + +"It seems," the doctor said, "you've given yourself sufficient motive for +murder, Freeman." + +"We all have sufficient motive," Freeman said frankly. "How long could +Waring remain a cashier if his past were dug out? How long would King be +manager of a brokerage house? How long would Lawton have enough credit +left to stay on in his business?" + +The room fell into silence, and Joe felt sweat on the palms of his hands. +These men discussed murder as other men might have talked of the loss of +a button from a coat. Dr. Stone put the pipe away and turned his +sightless eyes toward the spot from which Waring's voice had sounded. + +"You say Anthony wrote you?" + +"All of us. A devilish letter telling what was going into the book +concerning us. Do you get that? Paying off, after all these years, the +old score; ramming in the knife and turning it around. Giving us the +prospect of months of anticipation and worry waiting for the book to +appear. So we came up here----" + +"And threatened him?" the doctor asked. + +"Yes," Waring answered after a momentary hesitation. "He laughed at us. +He said the only way to stop that book was to kill him, and invited us to +do it. He said there was a blind man in the village with the very devil +of a dog and that the man who killed him would be tracked down." Waring's +voice rose. "But, for once, Anthony was wrong. He forgot----" The +passionate flow of words stopped with startling suddenness. + +"What did he forget?" Dr. Stone asked. + +Waring said nothing. + +"Did he forget that there was such a thing as the manuscript being +stolen?" + +Captain Tucker spoke. "What good would that do? The old man could write +it again." + +"Could he?" Dr. Stone mused. "I'm not so sure. A man who has to lean on a +servant's arm is a sick man--perhaps a dying man. By the way, Tucker, did +you look for the manuscript?" + +"Yes. He kept it in his bedroom." + +"And?" + +"It's gone." + +"Waring," Dr. Stone said slowly, "you checked yourself too late. So +Anthony forgot--and the manuscript _is_ stolen. That unfinished sentence +could convict you." + +"Of what?" Waring snapped. + +"Of murder. The man who stole that manuscript killed Anthony Fitch." + +Lady whimpered uneasily, and, in the hard silence, the sound was like the +wail of a ghost. Joe's temples throbbed, and he was conscious of Lawton +watching his uncle in a sort of bleak dread. Slowly he came to the +realization that the blind man, sitting there in a handicap of darkness +was the dominating figure in the room. + +Softly, almost soundlessly, a man wearing an apron appeared from the +kitchen. This, the boy guessed, was Cagge. + +"I've made coffee," the servant announced in a nasal monotone. "Anybody +want some?" + +Freeman's hand came away from the piano. "What's the matter with the +bacon and eggs?" + +Lawton gave a grunt of distaste. "Ugh! Who could eat food now?" + +"Is Anthony's death supposed to fill any of us with sorrow?" Freeman +asked blandly. + +"Fry mine on both sides," said Otis King. He stretched his legs and +smoothed his trousers. "Cagge, you were with Anthony how long?" + +"Three years." + +"Any trouble collecting your wages?" + +Joe saw the servant's face flame. "Trouble? Why, the tight-fisted, old +skin-flint----. Do you know how much he's paid me this last year? A +couple of dollars here and there when I could wring it out of him. And +now he's dead, and where am I going to collect the four hundred dollars +he owes me?" + +"Did you say four hundred dollars, Cagge?" King asked softly. + +"I said four hundred dollars and I mean four hundred dollars." Like a +shadow, almost without sound, the man was gone. The clatter of a pan came +from the kitchen. + +Otis King tapped a cigarette against a silver case. Joe's hands had gone +dry. Somewhere in the house a clock struck seven. + +"Four!" King said thoughtfully. "What would you call that, Doctor, +coincidence or--something else? Many a man has killed for less than four +hundred dollars." + +Dr. Stone stood up. Holding to the harness-handle of the dog's leash he +spoke to the four men who watched him intently. "Would a murderer first +tell that his victim kept muttering 'Four, four,' and then add that the +slain man owed him four hundred dollars? Lady, upstairs." The shepherd +dog guided him across the room skillfully preventing him from bumping +into chairs and furniture. With his feet on the first tread he spoke +again. "It wasn't Cagge, gentlemen." + +"Do you always leap at conclusions?" Otis King asked insolently. + +"I usually keep off paths other men mark for me," the doctor said +quietly. + +Joe followed his uncle up the staircase. He kept close to the dog, +afraid, in this house of terror, of he knew not what. In the upper hall +Captain Tucker halted and clutched his arm. + +"Doctor," he said rapidly, "there was something I did not want to tell +you downstairs in front of them. I found something in the room." + +"Finger prints?" + +"No; the candle-stick had been wiped clean. A plain, silk handkerchief. +It had evidently been used to cover the lower part of the murderer's +face. I found it in the center of the floor." + +Joe saw the familiar tense lines form around his uncle's mouth, and a +soundless whistle came from the blind man's lips. "So! I hadn't expected +that. King was right. They had reason not to trust one another." + +"What's that, Doctor?" + +"Nothing, Captain; nothing. Lead me in." + +A huddled figure was twisted grotesquely upon the bed. Joe, with a sudden +spot of ice in the pit of his stomach, backed out into the hall. +Presently there were leisurely footsteps on the stairs, and from inside +the room his uncle's voice said, "Lady, trail." The footsteps came on. +But the boy's ears were held by the softer pad-pad-pad of the shepherd +dog's feet. + +Lady came out into the hall, ears back and nose close to the floor. +Sniffing, she veered this way and that, but went steadily along the +passage. And then, suddenly, Joe's heart gave a choked throb, for the +tawny shepherd had swung in and came to a stop before a closed door. True +to her training, she stopped with her head below the lock; and Dr. Stone, +reaching out a groping hand, touched the knob. + +"Who's room is this?" he asked. + +"Mine," came Otis King's voice from down the hall. + +The tense lines were back around the doctor's mouth. "The trail clouds +again, Tucker," he said; but Captain Tucker, triumphant, held out the +silk handkerchief. + +"Ever see this before, King?" + +"No." + +"It was found near Anthony's body. The dog, taking a scent from it, +followed a trail to your door. How you explain that?" + +"Seeing that this is the first time I've been upstairs, I can't explain +it. Cagge brought my bag to this room, but I did not follow. When Anthony +went tottering off to bed I went outdoors and tramped the roads for +hours." + +"What for?" Captain Tucker barked. + +"I was trying," King said, "to hatch a plan by which I might get my hands +on that manuscript." + +"And then you came back, and came up here----" + +"I came back, but did not come upstairs. I went out again at once." + +"Still plotting, I suppose?" Captain Tucker said in sarcasm. + +"No," King said coolly; "the second time I acted. I destroyed Anthony's +book." + +Joe found it hard to swallow. Uncle David said the man who stole the +manuscript was the man who had killed! Dr. Stone's face was +expressionless: + +"I thought so." + +"Look here," King burst out angrily. "I told you I went out. When I came +back the house was dark. As I opened the front door I heard someone run +up the stairs. I snapped on the light, and a bundle of typed papers lay +on the floor. I had to read only half a page to know it was Anthony's +manuscript. Would I be apt to tell voluntarily that I destroyed the book +if the fact would link me to the murder?" + +Captain Tucker seemed a bit taken back. Lawton's voice came from +downstairs: + +"Breakfast, Otis." + +"You might have built this up," Captain Tucker said suspiciously. + +"I might," King agreed. He was once more dapper and assured. + +But when he came down stairs to the table, Joe saw that he had hardened +into cold watchfulness. Freeman said, "Sorry you won't eat with us, +Doctor." Lady, walking restlessly around the table, stopped at Freeman's +place and the man offered her a strip of bacon. + +"Quite a dog, Doctor." + +"Quite," Dr. Stone agreed; and Joe, reading something in the word, gave +his uncle a sharp, expectant glance. + +Cagge came in from the kitchen with more coffee. His hand shook as he +refilled the cups, and the spout of the pot chattered against the china. + +"Cagge," Dr. Stone said suddenly, "how did you sleep last night?" + +"I didn't--much," Cagge answered in his nasal monotone. "I didn't like +the look of things." + +"Did you hear anybody go out?" + +"Yes." The servant put down the pot. "It was blasted queer. I heard +somebody go out twice, and I heard somebody come back three times." + +"That doesn't make sense," Captain Tucker said irritably. + +"Everything makes sense when you understand it," the blind man observed. +Joe, catching a movement of the hand that held Lady's leash, followed his +uncle into the living-room. + +"Joe, was the window of King's room open?" + +"Yes, sir." + +The meal was over, and the four men came back through the doorway. Dr. +Stone found his chair. Ran Freeman dropped down upon the piano stool, but +Lawton seemed to seek a seat far from the blind man and the dog. Waring +paced the room, and Otis King was still cold and watchful. + +Freeman's fingers, once more running soundlessly over the keys, struck a +faint note. As though the sound had broken a barrier, he banged a chord. +The next instant, swinging about on the stool, he faced the instrument +and began to play, freely and without restraint. + +Joe found it hard to swallow. Music, in this house of death, sounded +ghastly, almost sacrilegious. He looked at his uncle. The calmness was +gone from Dr. Stone's face. Around the sightless eyes, around the serene +mouth, strange, intense lines he knew well had suddenly formed. + +Captain Tucker had gone out into the kitchen to talk to Cagge. Freeman +ended with a crash of sound. Seconds passed, and nobody spoke. The +silence seemed no more ghastly than the music. + +"Ran," Otis King drawled, dangerously quiet, "your veins must be filled +with ice." + +"Why be hypocrites?" Freeman demanded. "We're not mourning Anthony, are +we?" + +"We can be decent about it," King told him. + +Dr. Stone's voice was again a calm stream. "There was one part, +Freeman--Tum, te-tum-tum, tum-tum-te-tum. Toward the end. The execution +was fast. Tum, te-tum----" + +"Oh, this." Freeman faced the key-board again and began to play. "This +what you mean?" + +"Play it," said the blind man. + +Ran Freeman played. He was an artist, and he knew it. But Joe no longer +gave ear to the music. Something quiet--something too quiet--had been in +his uncle's voice. Something that suggested a cocked trigger about to be +fired. He shivered, and gripped the ends of his sweater, and held them +tight. + +For the second time the music ended in a crash of chords. Freeman, swung +about on the stool. + +"Like it, Doctor?" + +"Beautifully done," the blind man said. He lay back against the cushions +of the chair, loose and relaxed. "In fact, it would have been perfect +if----" + +Freeman chuckled. "Are you a music critic, too, Doctor? If what?" + +"If," Dr. Stone said quietly, "if many of those rapid notes had been +struck by a living touch." + +Joe screamed, "Look out, Uncle David." For Freeman, no longer +self-contained, had leaped from the stool and one hand had gone toward a +pocket. + +The blind man did not move. "Lady, get him." + +A tawny form hurtled through the air. There was the sound of a falling +body, a scream of terror. Captain Tucker came running in from the +kitchen. + +"What----" + +"It's all right, Tucker." Dr. Stone's voice was once more a calm stream. +"Lady will merely hold him. He's your man." + +Ten minutes later Lawton, King and Waring were gone, glad to be free and +away. Ran Freeman, white and sullen, sat handcuffed in one of the big +chairs. Captain Tucker, having telephoned for a policeman to relieve him +until the Coroner arrived, came back to the living-room. + +"I still don't get it, Doctor," he said ruefully. "After Lady trailed to +King's room----" + +"That was a laid trail," Dr. Stone told him. "Anthony had warned them +there was a dog that could track. Would a man deliberately invite +detection by leaving a trail right to his door? However, some one of the +four had been in the room. Which one? Probably the one with most at +stake. Lawton stood to suffer in a small business. Waring and King would +have lost their jobs. But Freeman stood to lose the Panner fortune. + +"King told us he had not been in the room, or unpacked his bag, or been +to bed. So far as the bed and the bag were concerned it had to be the +truth, for it was a story too easily disproved if he had lied. By the +same reasoning, knowing that there was a dog in the neighborhood that +could follow scent, he would not have made a trail to his own room if he +had committed murder. Therefore, when the trail led to a room in which +there was a rumpled bed and a bag partly unpacked, one fact was obvious. +King was not the man. + +"He said he had gone out twice. But Cagge said somebody had come in three +times. Did you notice the open window in King's room? The ceilings down +here are low--a blind man can feel these things. The second floor +wouldn't be far from the ground. Whoever killed Anthony knew King was out +of the house. Therefore, after the crime, he purposely left the silk +handkerchief to give the dog a scent. Then, going to King's room, he +mussed the bed, dragged clothing out of the bag, and dropped out the +window. No doubt you'll find deep footprints where he dropped. Going into +the room and out the window, he probably reasoned, brought the trail to +King's room and ended it there. + +"He was the third man Cagge heard come in. He must have brought Anthony's +manuscript back into the house with him intending to dispose of it later. +But King must have come back almost on his heels. Not wanting to be found +with the manuscript he dropped it and fled. Perhaps he reasoned that +King, finding it, would destroy it, anyway. If I had any doubts at all +they were gone when we came downstairs. The four men were eating. Lady, +circling the table, stopped at Freeman's chair. She had found the scent +again. I don't think Freeman meant to kill. His idea was to steal the +book. But Anthony awoke. Am I right?" + +Freeman had recovered some of his nerve. "Do you expect any jury to +convict on the testimony of a dog?" he demanded. + +"Tucker," said Dr. Stone, "will you look at his right hand?" + +Joe shrank away from the prisoner's violent struggle to free himself of +the handcuffs. Captain Tucker, holding Freeman in the chair, turned a +startled face toward the blind man. + +"Why, Doctor?----" + +"Exactly, Tucker. I had the testimony of Lady, but I needed greater +proof. Freeman gave it to me when he played the piano. All through the +music something kept recurring. Perhaps, were I not blind, did I not have +to depend so much on hearing, I would not have noticed it. A hesitation +on certain notes, an almost imperceptible break in the rhythm, a faint +click upon the ivory of the keys that could only be made by something +foreign, something that was not living flesh. Freeman has an artificial +finger." + +Freeman had slumped in the chair. Captain Tucker straightened up. + +"Doctor," he said curiously, "your brain travels too fast for me.... Much +too fast. Just what does that prove?" + +"Everything," Dr. Stone said quietly. "Modern surgery does miracles these +days. Freeman has an artificial finger that can be taken off. Do you +remember Cagge's story? Old Anthony kept muttering 'Four, four.' That's +what he had seen. Four! Four fingers on the hand of his murderer." + + + + + BLIND MAN'S TOUCH + + +Dr. Stone, reaching into the closet, found the gray suit that needed +pressing. He knew it was gray because his fingers felt the three +sharply-ridged lines of thread sewed on the inside of the collar. So, to +the blind man, was every suit, shirt, tie and sock in his wardrobe marked +for exact identification. One raised ridge of thread for blue, two for +brown, and three for gray. + +He came down the stairs with the suit. Joe Morrow had put a leash on +Lady, and she whined eagerly. + +"Ready to go, old girl?" The blind man patted the dog's head and took the +leash. "All set, Joe? Got your money?" + +"Yes, sir." The boy felt for the two dollars he had earned weeding a +neighbor's garden. "I'll have fourteen dollars saved," he boasted. + +"Wealth," the doctor chuckled, and snapped open his watch and touched the +exposed hands with a finger. "We'll be back in time for dinner." + +But that was a dinner they were destined never to eat. + +Roses bloomed in the summer heat, fields of corn tasseled in the sun, and +a dog ran out of a yard and barked at them furiously. Lady, intent only +on the blind man in her keeping, pricked up her ears but did not change +her rapid pace. The village was busy with its Saturday morning trade, and +the tawny brute carefully maneuvered the doctor through the crowds. Joe +clutched his two dollars and his bank-book. They left the gray suit at +the tailor's and came out to the street. And at that moment a man, +coatless and hatless, ran out of the Pelle Canning Company building and +went past them, panting. + +Dr. Stone said: "Did you hear that man's breathing, Joe? He's frightened. +Who is he?" + +"Mr. Pelle," the boy told him. + +"Where did he go?" + +"Into the bank." + +The doctor said: "Lady, right," and followed the dog across the roadway +to the bank side of the street. A small door in one of the two-story +brick buildings opened suddenly, and a girl hurried out. The door was +marked: "OFFICE, MIDSTATE TEL. CO. UPSTAIRS," and the girl was Tessie +Rich, one of the telephone operators. In her haste she almost ran into +the blind man. + +"Oh! I'm sorry, Doctor." + +"No harm done, Tessie," Dr. Stone said, and chuckled slyly. "We're on our +way to the bank. Any message you'd like me to give Albert Wall?" + +The girl colored rosily. "I usually give him my own messages." + +The wail of a siren filled the street and a police car went past them, +traveling fast. Instantly the girl was across the sidewalk and through +the telephone company door. The car stopped at the bank, and Joe saw a +figure in blue uniform and brass buttons get out. + +"Captain Tucker?" the blind man asked. + +"Yes, Uncle David." + +"The bank?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Tessie gone? I see. And Tucker and Pelle both in a hurry." The doctor +whistled an almost soundless whistle. "We'd better get on, Joe." + +Something had gone wrong at the bank. The boy saw that at once. A score +of depositors clung together in knots on the main floor, uneasy bank +clerks stood behind the bronze grille of the teller's windows, and from +some inner room came a roaring, bull voice shouting in anger. Bryan +Smith, the president of the bank, agitated and flushed, appeared in the +doorway of the little room, saw the blind man and cried out: + +"Doctor! Doctor Stone! This way, please." + +Joe Morrow, still clutching his two dollars and his pass-book, went with +his uncle and the dog, and the door closed upon them. Inside the room +three men stood about the bank president's desk. The veins in Mr. Pelle's +neck were swollen with rage; Albert Wall, the cashier, tapped his fingers +against the desk and frowned, and a third man, who looked lost and +bewildered, held on to the back of a chair near the window. This third +man, whom Joe had never seen before, smelled of antiseptics and carried +his right arm in a sling. + +"Doctor," Bryan Smith sputtered, "this bank has been robbed of five +thousand dollars. Robbed right under our noses. Not fifteen minutes ago." + +"By whom?" the doctor asked quietly. + +"We don't know. Somebody put a forged check through the window. At least +Pelle says he signed only one check and----" + +"What do you mean I say I signed only one check?" the canner roared. "I +tell you I signed only one. I should know! If you were fools enough to +pay----" + +"But I telephoned you, Mr. Pelle," Albert Wall broke in. "You said----" + +"I know what I said. I told you I had given a check to Fred Hesset for +five thousand dollars. If you paid five thousand dollars to another man +on a forged check that's your funeral. The real Hesset is here." Mr. +Pelle pointed to the man with bandaged arm. "Pay him." + +"Not so fast," Bryan Smith fumed. "One check has been paid already. Now +we have another and you say you signed only one. Which one?" The bank +president held out two slips of paper. + +Joe had a glimpse of them. Both were dated that day, both were made out +to Fred Hesset, both were for five thousand dollars, both were signed +"Paul Pelle." The canner stared at them for a long minute. + +"This one," he said, and pushed one of the checks across the desk. + +"How do you know?" + +"Because this one is number 1046. I gave Hesset check No. 1046." + +"How about your signature on this other check?" + +"I tell you that isn't my signature." + +With a quick movement the banker scrambled the checks and then laid them +side by side partly covered by a blotter so that only the signatures +showed. + +"Now, Pelle," he snapped, "which one did you sign?" + +The canner's neck swelled again. "What is this," he roared; "a trap? I +can't tell them apart. That's what you're supposed to be able to do. I +tell you----" + +"Gentlemen." Dr. Stone's voice was mild. "Let's stay with facts. As I +understand it Pelle gave a man named Hesset a check for five thousand +dollars this morning. What for?" + +"Damages," Mr. Pelle snapped. "Hesset owns a butcher shop at Arlington. +One of my trucks got out of control and skidded into the front of the +shop. Hesset was caught in the wreckage; broken arm and broken +collarbone. I don't carry liability insurance. I settled with him and +gave him a check at eleven o'clock this morning." + +Captain Tucker said: "Where does this second check come in?" + +"Tell them, Albert," Bryan Smith ordered. + +The cashier's fingers ceased to tap the desk. "At 11:13--I happened to +glance at the clock--a man pushed a check through the window. It was a +five thousand dollar check, made out to Fred Hesset and signed by Mr. +Pelle. The man couldn't identify himself, so I called Mr. Pelle and was +told he had given the check a few minutes before. I cashed it. Ten +minutes later another Hesset check for five thousand dollars came through +the window. It looked queer. I called Mr. Pelle again." Albert Wall made +a gesture with his hands. "Then I telephoned for Captain Tucker." + +The captain cleared his throat. "That first check was the forged check?" + +Again the cashier's hands moved. "So Mr. Pelle says." + +The canner's face was livid. But before he could roar his wrath Dr. +Stone's voice sounded quietly in the breathless tension of the room. + +"May I see those checks?" + +"Why--" The idea of sightless eyes trying to examine handwriting +staggered Bryan Smith. "Why--why, of course, Doctor," he said weakly. + +The checks crinkled faintly in the blind man's hands. Joe, watching his +uncle's face, suddenly saw a sign that sent a hot needle through his +spine. Tight, puckered lines had gathered around the sightless eyes. + +"How many persons knew this check was to be paid today?" Dr. Stone asked. + +"No one," Mr. Pelle answered shortly. "Things not connected directly with +the buying and selling I keep to myself." + +"But if you wrote Hesset surely your stenographer----" + +"I didn't write. I telephoned." + +"When?" + +"Last Monday evening--seven o'clock. I was alone in the office. I told +him to be here promptly at eleven this morning." + +Albert Wall said: "If you'll excuse me a moment--" and was gone. Joe felt +the warning pressure of his uncle's foot upon his toe. The door of the +inner room had not been tightly closed. Craning his neck, the boy saw the +cashier at a telephone. Presently Albert Wall came back still with that +slight frown upon his face. + +"This thing was planned ahead," Captain Tucker said slowly. + +"Forgery is always planned ahead," Dr. Stone agreed. "Somebody knew that +at eleven this morning Pelle was to give Hesset a check. By the way, +Pelle, when you telephoned Monday evening did you tell Hesset what the +amount of the check would be?" + +"Certainly. No man settles a damage claim without knowing what he's going +to get. I offered five thousand dollars; he accepted." + +"So somebody knew three important facts--that you were going to pay a +check at a certain time, the exact amount of the check and to whom it was +to be made payable." + +"Nobody knew it," the canner insisted. + +"Except you and Hesset," the blind man said mildly. + +The bandaged man, holding to the back of the chair, seemed to grow even +more bewildered. Mr. Pelle's face was thrust across the desk. + +"Doctor," he rasped, "are you insinuating----" + +Lady gave a low, deep-throated growl. One of the blind man's hands +touched the tawny head. + +"Pelle," he asked, "how did you come to pick a Saturday morning to settle +with Hesset?" + +"Any law against it?" Mr. Pelle demanded. + +"No." The doctor's voice was bland. "This is a small bank. It has only +two really busy hours in the week. There is a rush from eleven to noon on +Saturday just before the week-end closing; another rush from eight to +nine Monday morning with business men coming in with their Saturday cash. +During the week there would be leisure for a cashier to scrutinize a man; +perhaps to telephone and ask, among other things, for a description. But +on Saturday, after eleven, there is pressure and haste. And in this hour +of pressure a check went through." + +Mr. Pelle wet his lips nervously. Captain Tucker stood very still. + +"Anything else, Doctor?" he asked. + +"Why, yes." The blind man took a pipe from his pocket and filled it +slowly. "Why did Hesset bring his check here to be cashed? Why didn't he +take it back to Arlington and deposit it in his own bank?" + +"Well, Hesset?" the police captain barked. + +Joe saw the bandaged man grip the back of the chair with his good hand. +"I know nothing about two checks, Captain. I saw only one check. I wanted +the money in my pocket. Cash is cash. Sometimes a check you think is +good----" + +Mr. Pelle's roar filled the room. "You dare say that to me, Hesset?" +Captain Tucker sprang between the two men, and Joe shrank out of the way. +Dr. Stone said: "I had better take the dog out of here. Come, Joe." It +was long past noon, and the bank was closed. Albert Wall went with them +down the long, deserted floor to open the front door and let them out. + +"What do you make of this?" he asked in an undertone. + +"Pelle?" the doctor asked mildly. + +The cashier hesitated. "Well--yes. Five thousand dollars is a lot of +money. I know the condition of Pelle's account; business hasn't been any +too good of late and five thousand dollars might hit him hard. If he +could pay five thousand dollars with one hand and manipulate a forged +check with the other and get five thousand dollars back from the bank--. +For that, though, he'd need a confederate, somebody to go to the window +with the first check. It doesn't seem probable." + +"A possibility though," the blind man said. "A great many possibilities," +he added. "Let's not forget Hesset. Either Hesset or Pelle could have +worked this with a confederate. Or some person, unknown and unsuspected, +might be the criminal. Good day, Albert." He held out his hand. + +"Good-bye, Doctor." Their hands met. The heavy door of the bank closed. + +The puckered lines had come back to the sightless eyes. Man, boy and dog +came down the stone steps of the old-fashioned building. On the sidewalk +the doctor spoke. + +"Joe, you could see them. How did Pelle strike you?" + +"He was wild," the boy answered. + +"A man may protest too much or too little," the blind man observed dryly. +"Hesset?" + +"He was scared." + +"So! That leaves Albert Wall. Could you see him when he left the room?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Where did he go?" + +"To a telephone." + +"Good lad!" The doctor knocked the ashes from his pipe and walked beside +the dog in silence. "The telephone office," he said suddenly. + +Joe wondered what unseen tangent of the case could bring them there. They +went up a narrow mountain of a stairway. Lady, leading, slowed and swung +her Master to the left, stopping him at the counter. + +"Can you tell me," Dr. Stone asked, "what operators were on duty at seven +o'clock last Monday night?" + +"We have only one girl on duty after 6:45," the manager told him, and +consulted a record. "That was Tessie Rich's night. Any complaint, +Doctor?" + +"Merely a matter of information," the doctor smiled. Back in the sunlight +Joe saw that the smile was gone and that the puckers around the sightless +eyes had become intent. Dr. Stone said absently: "You must be hungry, +Joe," and they went toward a restaurant. But before they reached it there +was a rush of feet and a woman's breathless voice. + +"Doctor!" It was Tessie Rich. "Why did you want to know if I was on duty +last Monday night?" + +"I didn't." + +"Oh!" The girl was nonplused. "But--but you asked----" + +"I asked who was on duty," the doctor said gently. "Did you have any +reason to think I was asking about you?" + +Subtle, hidden undertones filled the question, and the hot needle was +again in Joe's spine. The girl raised a handkerchief to her lips. + +"Why--why, of course not, Doctor? Why should I?" There was something of +hysterical panic in her voice. + +"Why?" the blind man asked, blandly. + +In the restaurant Joe Morrow chewed on food that all at once stuck in his +throat. Why had his uncle gone to the telephone office? What hidden +spring had that visit touched and what had frightened Tessie Rich? Were +Mr. Pelle and the girl both involved? Had the canner actually signed two +checks? What about Mr. Hesset? Who had gone to the bank with the first +check and walked out with five thousand dollars in cash? + +"Do you know who did it, Uncle David?" + +A pipe came out of a pocket; blue smoke spiraled fragrantly about a face +that had become placid and bland. + +"Joe, the bank is built on a corner--at an angle to the corner. How far +up the street can you see?" + +"Quite a distance." + +"As far as Pelle's factory?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"I know who didn't do it," the blind man said, and stood up. "And," he +added quietly, "I think I know who did." + +Joe hoped it wasn't Tessie Rich. They walked out of the village and up +along the dirt road. The doctor said aloud: "If I could pick one more +link--" and left the sentence unfinished and said no more. Tree toads +made metallic clamor in the afternoon heat, and the earth smelled as +though it were baked. + +A clock struck three as they entered the house. Dr. Stone paced the porch +and Lady stretched off in a patch of sun and watched him steadily. Joe +brought up a tool from the cellar and prepared to trim the hedge. + +A light delivery truck stopped in the road and a young man carried a suit +up to the house. + +"You're prompt," Dr. Stone said. The suit was on a hanger; the coat +brushed against his knee with a soft crinkle. He ran one hand into a +pocket and pulled out a paper. Strange! There had been nothing in the +pockets of the suit he had carried away. His hand went up quickly to feel +inside the collar. The three sharply ridged lines of thread were not +there. + +"Joe!" he called. "Stop that tailor's boy----" But the driver had already +discovered his mistake. He came up the walk with the suit of gray. Joe +laid down the clippers and followed him in. + +"I'll carry that up to your room, Uncle Da----What's Lady got?" + +The dog had found a paper on the floor. Now she carried it to the doctor. +It crinkled in his hand. + +It was a small paper, no larger than half a sheet from a note-book. Joe +watched those hands move, gently exploring, over every inch of surface. +And as the hands moved, Dr. Stone's face changed. Joe had seen that +sharp, alert expression before. It was a silent sign that, some place in +the eternal darkness of his world, the blind man had found light. + +"Joe, there is writing on this paper?" + +"Yes, sir." The boy looked closer and drew in a hot, throbbing breath. +"Uncle David! The same thing's written all over it. Paul Pelle, Paul +Pelle, Paul Pelle." + +Dr. Stone said a soft: "Ah!" and folded the paper and put it in his +pocket. "The criminal always slips," he observed; "there's always +something forgotten." He stood for a moment whistling softly. "Care to +stretch your legs? I want a word with the tailor." + +Joe's eyes, fascinated, were on the writing. That paper had fallen from +the suit delivered by mistake, and now his uncle wanted to know to whom +the suit belonged. + +"Couldn't you telephone him, Uncle David?" + +The blind man's mouth twitched. "The call might pass through Tessie's +switchboard," he said dryly. + +The boy groped, and stumbled, and sought to find the meaning. The +afternoon sun was low; the first cool breath of evening breeze blew over +the dirt road. He waited outside while his uncle talked with the tailor; +when the man came out he was whistling. + +"Police station," he said. + +Captain Tucker was at his desk. "Doctor," he burst out, "this thing is +baffling. Lay those two checks side by side and you can't tell the +signatures apart. I've talked to New York. There isn't a forger known to +the police in this part of the country." + +Dr. Stone asked: "Did Albert Wall give you a description?" + +"Of the man who cashed that first check? A lot of good that does. Five +feet eight, about 155 pounds, dark, clean-shaven, blue suit. It fits a +million men." + +"It would," the doctor said blandly. His face was inscrutable. "You heard +Pelle's story and Albert Wall's. Get statements prepared." + +"For what?" + +"For them to sign." His hands felt along the desk for the telephone and +he called Bryan Smith's house. "Bryan? Dr. Stone. Do you know where you +can find Albert at this hour? He's with you now? Can you have him at the +bank in an hour? I'll be along with Captain Tucker and Pelle." He put +down the telephone. "You have an hour, Tucker, in which to get those +statements ready and dig up Pelle. He's probably at the factory." + +"But why signed statements?" Captain Tucker demanded impatiently. + +"Bait," the blind man said casually. "Sometimes you use cheese in a trap; +sometimes you use printed words." He settled into a chair and closed his +eyes, and appeared to doze. The dog, ever watchful, lay at his feet. + +Captain Tucker left the room, and presently, in another part of the +police station, a typewriter began to click. The captain came back +grumbling and out-of-sorts. The doctor's devious, subtle methods always +provoked him to a show of ill-humor. The telephone rang sharply--there +had been an automobile crash near the bridge. A minute later a motor +roared into life in the alley beside the station and a motorcycle +patrolmen sped away. The blind man did not stir. + +Joe Morrow squirmed restlessly and watched the clock. Mr. Pelle arrived +in a chastened, subdued mood; a uniformed man brought Captain Tucker +several typewritten sheets; the wall clock struck the hour, and Dr. Stone +opened his eyes. + +"Ready, Tucker?" + +They drove to the bank in the police car. Bryan Smith let them in. Dusk +had begun to gather in the corners farthest from the windows, a +guardlight burned in front of the steel safe, and a burst of ceiling +lights shone from the inner room. Captain Tucker and Mr. Pelle went on +ahead while the bank president saw to it that the door was securely +locked. The doctor lingered. + +"Bryan," he said softly, "are there pens and ink on your desk?" + +"Certainly." + +"Remove them; Lady, forward." And before the man could reply the doctor +was on his way past the teller's cages, one hand holding the +harness-grip, his body bent a little toward the guiding dog. + +Bryan Smith, saying that they might need room, cleared the desk. Mr. +Pelle's eyes shifted from side to side and missed nothing. Albert Wall +seemed to wait patiently the outcome of this strange gathering. But what +held Joe's attention and sent the blood pounding in his veins was a +something that lay behind the passive placidity of his uncle's face. + +"Captain Tucker," Dr. Stone said, "has prepared statements for Pelle and +Albert to sign. You have pens, gentlemen? Now, if you will sign them----" + +Albert Wall read rapidly and, taking a fountain pen from his pocket, +signed at once. Mr. Pelle read his paper through and then read it again. +He wrote his name slowly. + +"Albert's paper, Captain." The doctor laid it on the desk at his right +hand. "Pelle's." It went upon the left. "Now, Bryan, if I may have those +checks. First the one Pelle says he didn't sign." It went upon the right +with Albert Wall's statement. + +The bank president's nerves had been under a long strain. "What's the +meaning of this, Doctor?" he snapped. "If you have your suspicions, let +us know them. If you have anything to say, say it. Don't waste time." + +"Presently," the doctor said mildly. His hands had moved, mysteriously +explored, and had come to rest. That vague something in his face was no +longer there; he was serene. When he spoke again his voice was almost +confidential. "Had that fountain pen long, Albert?" + +The cashier was surprised. "Four or five years." + +"You kept it too long. It tripped you." + +"Tripped? Look here, Doctor, what are you driving at?" + +"Money," the blind man said. "Five thousand dollars. What did you do with +it?" + +In the appalled silence of the room Joe heard clearly the sound of +someone breathing with an effort. The cashier had not moved. + +"Do you know what you're saying, Doctor?" + +"Quite," the doctor said pleasantly. From his pocket he drew out a paper. +"Did you ever see this?" + +It was the paper Lady had picked from the floor. Albert Wall's eyes +widened. + +"A dangerous business, handling money," Dr. Stone mused. "Thousands upon +thousands of dollars pouring through one's hands every day. Other +people's money. If a man has a weak spot some place inside it may get +him--a fever to have some of this money for his own. If the right moment +comes, or the right scheme presents itself---- + +"You heard about the settlement Pelle was to make with Hesset, didn't +you, Albert? The weak spot took control. You saw a chance to put your +hands on five thousand dollars so cleverly that it would never be traced +to you. You must have spent hour upon hour practicing Pelle's signature. +And finally you had a check that you thought was perfect. + +"You could see Pelle's factory. Saturday morning you saw Hesset go in. +You may have gone to Arlington so you'd know what he looked like; you may +have figured you'd know him because he would be bandaged. You saw him +come out; you waited a minute or two. Then you telephoned Pelle that a +man was at the window with a five thousand dollar check. Naturally Pelle +said it was all right. You knew he'd say that. Hadn't he just given the +check? So you stamped 'paid' on the check you had forged, and placed it +with the checks the bank had cashed that morning. Shortly thereafter the +real Hesset appeared and you telephoned Pelle again. Oh, it was a sweet +scheme, Albert. Apparently there was no come-back. Hadn't Pelle told you +to pay the first check? Could the bank be held responsible for paying a +check Pelle told it to pay? In its simplicity the plan was almost genius. +But--" The doctor paused. "You slipped." + +The cashier had not moved. "Doctor," he said evenly, "your story is +preposterous. You heard Pelle say he was alone in the office when he +telephoned Hesset. To put a scheme like this through I would have to know +in advance that a settlement had been made, when a check was to be given, +and for how much. How could I know it?" + +"Bryan," the blind man said, "will you call the telephone office and ask +them can they send Tessie Rich over here for a moment?" + +The bank president reached for the telephone. + +"Don't do that," Albert Wall called sharply. In a moment all the +self-control had gone out of him. There was a chair behind him; he +reached back and sank into it heavily. "Keep her out of it," he said in a +whisper. "I--I did it. I alone." + +Mr. Pelle wiped beads of sweat from his forehead. "I thought you +suspected me, Doctor?" + +"It is wise, sometimes, to appear to suspect the innocent. Do you +remember I asked for the checks this morning? A moment later I knew you +were not the man. As soon as you said you had telephoned Hesset a +significant thing happened. Albert left the room. He went to a telephone. +My guess is he went there to warn Tessie not to tell anybody she had +spoken to him about the Hesset settlement." + +The cashier lifted a white face. "How did you know that?" + +"Deduction. One person could have heard what Pelle said to Hesset--the +central operator through whom the call passed. When I left here Albert +took me to the door. I made a point of shaking hands with him. A cashier +who had just paid a forged check, it is only natural to suppose, would be +nervous and upset. Albert's hand was hard and strained, his grip that of +a man steeled to see something through.... What? + +"I stopped at the telephone office and asked what girls had been on duty +at seven o'clock Monday evening. Tessie had been on duty alone. I did not +mention her name; and yet, before I had gone one hundred feet, she was +out in the street after me, badly shaken, demanding to know why I had +inquired about her. That end of the picture was complete. Tessie and +Albert were sweethearts; she had told him of the Pelle call in +confidential gossip. I knew then who the guilty man was, but I could not +prove it. + +"This afternoon the tailor delivered me another man's suit by mistake. I +found it was Albert's. This was in one of the pockets." The doctor pushed +across the desk the paper covered with the canner's signature. "Probably +every other paper on which Albert had practiced the signature had been +destroyed--this one had been overlooked. As he could not have practiced +forgery at the bank he must have done it at home. And as the same pen had +written the signatures on this paper and the signature on the forged +check, they must have been written, not with a bank pen, but with a pen +that Albert carried with him. I wanted to have him use that pen before +witnesses. + +"So I had Captain Tucker prepare statements and bring you here. I had +Bryan clear the desk so that Albert would have no other pen to use but +his own. Once he signed that statement he had damned himself." + +Bryan Smith, examining the two checks, shook his head. "Doctor, you +cannot see. How could you tell that?" + +"Have you a magnifying glass?" the blind man asked. + +The bank president took one from a drawer. + +"Examine the check Pelle signed and the statement he signed. Both +signatures are smooth. Look at the forged check. There are three l's in +Paul Pelle. On each of the three upstrokes on the l's the pen gouged the +paper a bit. Here's the paper that was in the suit. The same gouge on the +upstrokes. Now the statement Albert Wall signed. There are also three l's +in his name, and the same gouge on the upstrokes. All made by the same +pen." + +Joe Morrow was filled with a sense of pride and wonder. Bryan Smith said +slowly: + +"Doctor, I fail to see how you, sightless, could detect that." + +"Eyes," Dr. Stone said. "Auxiliary eyes. When sight goes, other senses +quicken." He laid his hands upon the table, palms up, and the light shone +upon the delicate, sensitive finger tips. + +"You mean you could feel these grooves?" Captain Tucker demanded. + +"Yes." + +The captain ran his own fingers across the signatures. "I don't see how," +he complained. "I don't feel a thing." + +Dr. Stone filled his pipe with expert care. "You are not blind," he said +mildly. "You lack a blind man's touch." + + + + + BIRTHDAY WARNING + + +Even though his eyes could not tell the difference between light and +darkness, Dr. Stone knew that day had broken. The air had an early +morning smell. Reaching out, he felt for the clock from which the glass +face had been removed; his sensitive fingers, touching the exposed hands +lightly, recorded the time. Five minutes of six. He sat up in bed. + +He had gone to sleep thinking of Allan Robb, and now, awake, the thought +returned. Tomorrow would be Allan's birthday. Twenty-one years old; the +master, in his own right, of a fortune. The doctor chuckled, and wondered +just how much of a master Allan would really be--for a while, anyway. For +Alec Landry was Allan's guardian and had lived at the Robb homestead +these six years since old Jamie Robb's death. A straightforward man, Alec +Landry, who had obeyed old Jamie's dying command to "bring up my boy +right." A loud, hearty man, with a love of having his own way and a habit +of roaring down any who opposed him. Tomorrow, then, Allan Robb would +become master in name; but it would be several years, probably, before +the young man got out from under Alec Landry's hand. + +A good thing, Dr. Stone thought dryly. Already there were signs of +attentions that might turn the head of a young man suddenly independent. +Tomorrow there was to be a great party. That was all right--a lad comes +of age only once. Bruce Robb had sent up a blooded mare from New York. +That was all right, too--Bruce was Allan's cousin. But all yesterday +afternoon cars had come in through the village, traveling fast. Cars that +blew imperative horns too obviously. That was the danger to Allen--rich +young friends with time on their hands and nothing to do. Ah, well; leave +that to Alec Landry. He was a stout man when it came to calling halt. + +Dr. Stone swung his legs to the floor. Lady arose from where she had +slept, stretched her great muscles, and came toward him. + +"Lady," the doctor said, "suppose we take to the road. There aren't many +good days left. Once winter comes you and I will be more or less chained +to the house." + +The deep eyes of the dog clung to his face. Presently, his hand holding +the hard handle-grip of Lady's harness, he listened at Joe Morrow's +bedroom door. His nephew was still asleep. Out on the dirt road Dr. Stone +said, "Lady, away," and they turned north to where Indian summer lingered +late in the hills and the valleys were a brown haze. By and by there was +wood smoke in the man's nostrils, and the distant babble of many alien +tongues. And, while he wondered about this a woman's voice, old and weak, +quavered at him from the roadside. + +"Your fortune, kind master, if it's safe near the beast and you blind. +Cross my palm with silver, and----" + +Gypsies! The doctor laughed and shook his gray, lion head. His left hand +held to the harness; his right hand swung a light cane. Abruptly the cane +lost contact with a field fence and touched nothing. The man said, "Lady, +right," and passed through a pasture gate onto Allan Robb's land as +unerringly as though he could see the gate itself. And the thought that +lay in his mind had to do with the gypsy encampment and how long it would +be before Alec Landry discovered the trespass and roared the intruders +off. + +And now, suddenly, the stillness that seemed part of the smoky haze was +broken, and the morning was filled with the far-off echoes of a sledge or +a pick swung against rock and dirt. The sound, the doctor decided, came +from the deep ravine that divided the Robb estate. But when man and dog +came to the wooden bridge that spanned the ravine, there was no sound +save the gurgle of water running among the sharp rocks far below. + +"Hello, down there!" Dr. Stone called. + +Silence! Lady stood rigid and a low growl rumbled in her throat. The man, +sharpened by an intangible something, touched the alert ears, and the dog +was quiet. A wind sighed through the bare branches of the trees, and all +at once there was dust and grit in his face. The grit burned like fire. +He put up a quick hand and rubbed hot, harsh particles between his +fingers. For a time he stood there motionless, startled; and then, +slowly, he moved off the bridge with the dog. + +An hour later he was back on the dirt road. Horses' hoofs raced and +pounded, and voices shouted and halloed. Lady pulled him out of the way, +toward the safety of a hedge, and the young people who had come for +Allan's party thundered past. One pair of hoofs pranced, and one of the +riders rode back. + +"The new mare, Allan?" Dr. Stone asked. + +"No, sir. Skipper thinks it's more in keeping not to ride her until +tomorrow." Skipper had always been Allan Robb's name for his guardian. +"Did you run into the gypsies?" + +The doctor was surprised. "You know they're there?" + +"Of course. I think we all know they're there." + +The doctor's surprise increased. "Alec, too?" + +"Skipper?" Allan's laugh rang. "Doctor, I think Skipper's softening. Of +course he knows they're there--he must. Cousin Bruce, too. You remember +Bruce--forever chasing boys out of the orchard when he came on vacation? +Last night I saw him talking pleasantly to one of the gypsy men." + +"Where was Bruce? At their camp?" + +"No; down at the ravine bridge." Spurs touched the horse. "You and Joe +will be over this afternoon?" + +"Nothing could keep me away," Dr. Stone said quietly. The horse was gone +in a crescendo of hoof-beats, and the blind man again stood thinking for +a time before moving on. + +Joe Morrow met him at the house gate. "Allan stopped and said we were to +go over, Uncle David. He's going to show me the mare. And there's a story +in the _Herald_ about Bruce Robb. He's being sued--." The boy found the +story in the paper. "For eight thousand five hundred dollars." He spoke +the sum in a tone of awe. + +Dr. Stone whistled soundlessly. How much would a good horse cost today? +Five hundred dollars? If a man who couldn't pay his bills spent five +hundred dollars for a birthday present---- + +"Joe, do you think you could get into that ravine on Allan's land without +being seen?" + +"I--I think so." + +"Somebody was there this morning hiding under the planking of the +bridge." + +Joe stared. "How did you know?" + +"Lady warned me. Then, whoever was under there, had a pipe. The hot +grains of tobacco blew into my face." + +The boy's heart missed a beat. "You think the gypsies--" + +The blind man shrugged. "I'd like to know what story the ravine could +tell. Give it a look, Joe, and keep out of sight." + +Lady, out of her harness, drowsed in a patch of sun, but Dr. Stone sat +with a perplexed pucker between his sightless eyes. By and by familiar +footsteps came hurriedly along the dirt road, and he arose and went to +the porch door. + +"Somebody's been messing under the bridge," Joe reported. "A lot of +rock's been knocked out and a lot of dirt dug away. Does it mean +anything, Uncle David?" + +"Perhaps," the blind man said, and took the dog's harness down from a +peg. "It's time we looked in at the party." + +Allan Robb's house was gay with noise and with laughter. Young people +seemed to be everywhere--on the porch, on the lawn, back toward the +stables. Joe, walking with his uncle and the dog, was conscious of +curious glances and voices that flattened out and became silent. And so +they went up to the porch to be met by Allan in the great hall. + +"Glad you came, Doctor. Joe, I'll show you the mare--" His voice broke +off. "Bruce, here's an old friend." + +Joe edged back a step. Bruce Robb, proud and imperious, had often driven +him from Allan's acres, and he was still a little in awe of the man. But +the Bruce he met today was morose and restless, and given to a habit of +gnawing on a clipped, black mustache. + +Alec Landry surged down the hall. "Hi, Doctor. A party to be remembered. +Well, why not? It isn't every day a man comes of age." + +"Aren't you a day early?" Dr. Stone asked mildly. + +"Why wait for the day to arrive. Meet it; greet it; welcome it on the +threshold. The old Indian tribes had the right idea." + +Joe wondered what Indians had to do with Allan's birthday. + +"Symbolism," Alec Landry roared heartily. "At midnight Allan becomes of +age, and immediately he begins to exercise the prerogatives of a man. At +a minute past the hour he walks into the library with two witnesses and +signs his will. At four tomorrow morning he'll saddle the mare Bruce gave +him and ride it for the first time. Ride it, Doctor, in the dark of the +night and on his own land. Ride it through the woodland to the bridge, +and over the ravine, and up East Hill. And then, alone on the hilltop, +he'll meet his manhood in the dawn." + +"Quite an idea," the blind man said. And then: "Might I trouble either of +you gentlemen for a pipeful of tobacco?" + +Joe thought they must all hear the breath that rattled in his throat. A +man, smoking a pipe, had hidden--. Did his uncle suspect somebody here? +His hot eyes watched to see who would bring forth tobacco. + +"All the pipefuls you want, Doctor," Alec Landry roared, "and welcome. +Bruce and I smoke the same brand. Take your pick of either pouch." + +The doctor filled his pipe, and a merry group came through the hall and +Alec was swept away. + +"Skipper's certainly putting on a show for the golden crown," Bruce said +tartly. + +The blind face was a tranquil mask. "Aren't you?" + +Bruce gave a bitter laugh. "You've seen the _Herald_, I suppose, and +you're wondering about the mare. You've never been a half-soled cousin, +have you? When you become the poor end of a rich relative you play to +keep in his good graces. You heard Skipper mention the will? When Allan +dies I'll inherit wealth. Something to look forward to, isn't it? And +yet, at this minute, I'm as poor--." He bit off the sentence, and in that +instant the noisy gayety from the lawn fell away to a startled murmur and +then became a hushed silence. + +"Probably some more of Skipper's symbolism," Bruce Robb jeered. + +Dr. Stone said, "Lady, out," and they reached the porch. The silence +remained unbroken. + +"It's a gypsy woman, Uncle David," Joe said breathlessly. + +The woman was painfully old, and gnarled, and advanced toward the porch +with the aid of a stout stick of twisted wood. Even in the voluminous +folds of her faded, bedraggled, once gayly-colored garments she seemed a +fragile framework of bones and of brown, wrinkled flesh. Beads were +strung around her scrawny neck; brass rings hung from her ears. And as +Joe watched, fascinated, she hobbled slowly up the walk with the slowness +of great age. + +"Where did she come from?" Bruce demanded. + +"Don't you know?" Dr. Stone asked mildly. + +The morose man flared. "Of course not. Why should I?" + +Joe had the feeling that, in that short dialogue, something had been +charged, something denied. Strange premonitions grew and throbbed. And +yet his eyes were glued to the old crone, leaning like a bundle of rags +on her stick at the foot of the porch. + +"Your fortunes, kind masters," she cried in a weak quaver. "It is well to +know the future, for a cloud hangs over this house. I see danger where no +danger should be, and a bud dying as it blooms." + +Joe went cold to his spine. Feet shifted restlessly in the grass, and +Alec Landry burst through the crowd. + +"What's this vagabond doing here?" he demanded roughly. + +Bruce gave a thin smile. "A different sort of symbolism, Skipper. Making +prophecy. Danger, and death, and doom. Pleasant old hag." + +Joe saw the Landry face go red with rage. Pushing past Bruce he went down +the steps, burly in his strength, and towered above the bent, shrunken +form. + +"You're not wanted here," he said. "Clear out before I call the police." + +The bent bundle did not stir. + +"Do you hear me?" Alec roared. "Go!" + +Slowly a clawlike hand lifted itself above the parchment face. For +seconds she stood there, and in those seconds no one moved or spoke. + +"The blind man," she croaked. "Hark to me. The blind man shall see, and +the wolf shall find a thorn in the rose." + +The hand dropped. Slowly that bundle of rags turned, slowly it tottered +on its way, slowly it disappeared among the trees. A shuddering voice +said, "Gosh, Allan; that was creepy." + +Alec Landry fumed. "Mark me, Doctor, if there's mischief abroad in this +neighborhood it will be the gypsies behind it." + +"What mischief, Alec?" + +"Why--." Joe was startled to find the man suddenly uneasy. "How should I +know?" + +"How?" the doctor admitted blandly. Pinched lines had formed around the +sightless eyes. Lady moved restlessly against his left leg, and Allan +strove to rout the depression of the old woman's visit. + +"Your fortune, kind masters," he mimicked; "a roof lies over this +house--." He went off into a gale of laughter. "What a lot of rot! I said +I'd show you the mare, Joe. Coming, Doctor?" and the party, recovering +its voice and its holiday mood, milled toward the stable-yard. + +The mare, Joe saw with a thrill of admiration, was superb. A groom had +brought her out roaring and plunging. Suddenly she was on her hind legs, +pawing the air, whistling and snorting. A girl screamed. + +The blind man's ears had etched the picture. "A spirited animal, Bruce." + +"Spirited, yes." + +"Too much spirit, perhaps." + +Bruce shrugged. "Allan wouldn't thank you for a cream-puff. He knows how +to ride--he's proud of it--he warms to a horse with plenty of fire." + +"And yet--." The cane in the right hand swished gently against a trouser +leg. "Even a skilled rider might find it dangerous to ride a strange, +fiery horse in the dark." + +"Why don't you tell that to Skipper, Doctor? It's his show. Anyhow, the +mare isn't a killer. I know horses." + +"And gypsies?" the doctor asked softly. + +Joe was conscious of those strange premonitions twitching at his nerves. +Bruce gnawed at his mustache. + +"I might as well tell you," he flung out suddenly. "Of course I knew that +the gypsies had made camp; I talked to some of them. When you've had your +own taste of being harried and pressed you shrink from hounding others. +The truth is, Doctor, I've lost practically all of what money I had a +year ago. Skipper had a hot tip on a deal and let me in. It wiped me +out." + +Joe saw that the right hand no longer swished the cane. The groom took +the mare back to the stable, and the crowd went off shouting in search of +some new interest. Dr. Stone said, "Lady, house," and returned to the +porch. The house seemed to be momentarily deserted; but suddenly a voice +came from one of the rooms off the wide, center hall. + +"I tell you I can't--not now. Give me time. A week--two at the most. I'll +make good. I--" + +The blind man's feet rang hard against the floor. The voice stopped +short, and a receiver snapped back upon a hook. Alec Landry came out into +the hall. + +"Oh! It's you, Doctor. You'll pardon me; I have an errand that won't +wait." Abruptly, on his way to the door, he turned and came back. "What +do you think of the mare?" + +It was Joe who answered. "Isn't she a beauty?" + +"A devil. You've talked to Bruce, Doctor. What do you make of him?" + +"Was I supposed to make something?" + +The man shook his head impatiently. "Allan should not have told him how +much he was to inherit. He's in a black mood and penniless." + +"You're letting Allan ride the mare," Dr. Stone pointed out. + +"Yes." There was a moment of silence. "What else could I do? He believes +in himself. Could I risk shaking his courage and turning him into a +coward? See you later." + +The blind man stood whistling his soundless whistle. Presently he touched +the dog. "Lady, outside." The revelry of Allan's guests was subdued in +the distance. + +"Are we going home, Uncle David?" Joe asked. + +"We're going to the bridge," said Dr. Stone. + +Dusk crept out of the sky and darkness gathered in the hollows. They +skirted a field of stubble and plunged into woodland, and Joe could feel +the hard pumping of his heart. The bridge again! Did his uncle expect to +find something there? The murmur of water came to them, and he lengthened +his stride and struck out ahead. + +"Behind me, Joe," Dr. Stone called sharply. + +The boy drew back. From the rear he saw his uncle urge Lady forward until +both walked at an extraordinary fast pace. The sound of running water was +stronger now, clear and distinct in the evening quiet. Fearlessly, +without hesitation, the blind man went ahead into the unknown, trusting +himself to the guidance of the beast. + +Lady reached the bridge. And then, in one swift movement, she seemed to +half leap and turn. Her powerful body blocked the man's path, found his +legs and pressed him back. + +"Joe!" There was no change in the serene self-control of the voice. + +"Yes, Uncle David." + +"Give me your hand. Step out upon the bridge--one foot only, one foot +lightly. And hold on to my hand with all your strength." + +The boy put a trembling foot upon the wooden planking. The next instant, +with a strangled cry, he leaped toward the man and, even as he leaped, +found himself pulled back violently. + +"It moved, Uncle David." + +"I thought so." + +"What does it mean?" + +"It means murder," the blind man said grimly. + +Joe wiped cold sweat from his forehead. Who was to die? Allan? Who +planned it? + +"The gypsies, Uncle David?" + +"No." Quietly, without haste, the man filled his pipe. "Remember, they +are a clan. The old woman would not have spoken of death if the men of +her tribe were concerned in this. Besides, who would hire them for this +sort of work and risk paying blackmail all the days of his life? I am +concerned with something else. Alec Landry called me to witness their +presence should there be mischief. Bruce took pains to explain why he had +not driven them off. Both men may have spoken the truth, but it is not +likely. One or both of them lied." + +Night had fallen. In the darkness Dr. Stone smoked as placidly as though +death and horror were not at his elbow. Lady still kept her body between +him and the ravine. + +"Two men," he said, "one with a fortune to gain, one with a crime to +cover. Do they work together, or do they work alone? Is one innocent? If +so, which one?" + +Joe spoke in a whisper. "What crime, Uncle David?" + +"Embezzlement. You heard that telephone talk of Landry's? He's lost +heavily in the deal that wrecked Bruce. He's probably lost money that +didn't belong to him--Allan's money. Somebody has planned that Allan +shall die. Is it the man who would be sure to become wealthy, or the man +who might save himself from jail? Who undermined this bridge?" Without +haste he knocked the ashes from his pipe. "Come, Joe; we're going back." + +Once clear of the woodland Joe saw the house across the fields brilliant +with lights. Sounds of merriment came from inside, and a dozen voices +laughed and talked at once. + +Dr. Stone spoke softly. "What are they doing, Joe? Eating?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Bruce and Mr. Landry?" + +"I can't see them. They're not at the tab----I see them now. They're +coming this way toward the porch." + +"We'll soon know," the blind man said calmly. When Bruce and Alec Landry +stepped from the house he sat in placid contentment, and the tawny +shepherd dog lay at his feet. + +"Allan's holding places for you and Joe," Alec Landry said. + +The doctor shook his head. "I think I'll stay here. This is a night when +youth has a right to question the presence of gray hairs." + +"I'm in no mood for it myself," Bruce Robb said curtly, and dropped into +a chair to the left of Dr. Stone. Landry sat on his right. The blind man +stretched his arms lazily, as one does who takes his rest gratefully, and +his hands fell on an arm of the chair of the man on either side. + +"And so Allan rides at dawn," he said casually. + +Joe had almost ceased to breathe. + +"At dawn," Alec Landry repeated heartily. "By George, there's a picture. +Sir Galahad with the sunrise in his face. Get it, Doctor?" + +"Plainly, Alec; very plainly. That's what worries me." + +"What worries you?" + +"The picture. It's incomplete. First he rides out. So far, so good. +But--is he supposed to come back?" + +For the space of a heart-beat it was as though neither man had heard; +then Bruce leaped to his feet. + +"Dr. Stone, that's a ghastly thing to say." + +"It's a ghastly business," the blind man said without emotion. + +"That mumbling gypsy has addled your brain. You're mad. I think I can +find pleasanter company." + +He was gone, and Joe grew conscious of a collar that had become too +tight. Would Uncle David let him go, or would Lady be sent to bring him +back? A burst of laughter rolled from the festive dining-room. Dr. +Stone's voice, brooding, came out of the darkness. + +"You were desperate, Alec, weren't you?" + +"Desperate?" The word was snapped. + +"Yes; desperate. The deal that had plunged Bruce to ruin had sucked you +down, too. You didn't know which way to turn. Until Bruce sent up the +mare there seemed no escape; but when the mare arrived it opened the +doors to salvation. It brought a plan. Let the lad ride out alone. Blame +the mare when his body was found--a runaway crash through the bridge. +Hadn't they all seen the mare's wild prancings? You tried to cover +yourself from every angle. You even insinuated that Bruce might have a +reason for sending such a horse--you even called her a devil--and +whispered of Bruce's black mood, and his penniless condition, and the +will. You tried to work the gypsies into the pattern. If some sharp eye +should notice something queer about the way the bridge had collapsed +hadn't there been gypsies encamped nearby? You were too pointed in +calling my attention to the gypsies and their possible relation to the +future events. That was when I began to suspect you. It was inconceivable +that you hadn't known they were on the land. Never before had you +permitted trespass. Why this time? + +"The answer was simple. It was the will that Allan was to sign at +midnight. Without question he was to name you executor. It takes a year +to close an estate. With Allan dead the estate, instead of passing out of +your charge, would remain in your control for another twelve months. A +year in which to save yourself from going to prison as a thief. A year in +which to put back the money you used to finance your own personal +business deals. How deeply did you dip your hands into Allan's funds? How +much did you lose? How much are you short?" + +There was a stark, sick silence. Joe pulled at his collar and wet his +lips. + +"Eighty thousand dollars," Alec Landry said hoarsely. + +"And you planned to hide it under a murder," Dr. Stone said in a voice +that was flat, and level, and as cold as ice. + +They were singing in the house. Allan, flushed and happy, came out to the +porch. + +"Skipper, they want you inside. That bass voice of yours is needed." + +Joe held to the porch rail and waited for what might come next. + +Alec Landry did not rise. "Allan," he said heavily, "when you ride at +dawn, don't go by the bridge. I've just had word that it's in bad +shape--the weight of a horse would crash it down. It might be a good idea +to run your party over and block the approaches. Some luckless devil +might wander out on it." + +Presently the young men were gone with lanterns, and lights, and axes to +build a barricade; and he who had been great on Allan Robb's land waited +in the house for the just punishment that would come; and a boy, and a +dog and a blind man went toward home along the dirt road. + +"Conscience, Joe," Dr. Stone said quietly. "You'll remember, I sat +between them. One, or both, were behind the cold-blooded plan. If, out of +a clear sky, knowledge of the plot were exploded, there would have to be +a reaction. I counted on that. Conscience can steel itself to brazenly +meet the expected, but against the unexpected it is unprepared. And so, +when I asked if Allan were expected to return from that ride----" + +"Yes?" Joe Morrow asked breathlessly. + +"Conscience spoke," Dr. Stone told him quietly. "Alec Landry's chair +trembled as his guilty soul cowered in fear." + + + + + THE HOUSE OF BEATING HEARTS + + +In the short dusk of a Friday afternoon in March Joe Morrow came toward +home from the village school pleasantly concerned with plans for the +week-end holiday. There was a hint of spring in the air, and the hard +crust of the winter's snow had begun to soften. At the top of the last +rise out of the village he passed Roscoe Sweetman's farm, and it seemed +to the boy that the burly Mr. Sweetman, busy outside the barn, turned and +looked after him as he passed. From there a section of the road spread +out before him--the deserted, abandoned Farley place and, beyond that, +the rock-and-timber house which Frederick Wingate had built and in which +he painted pictures that were sent to art dealers in New York. Queer +pictures, the village said--pictures of queer blurs and shadows, pictures +in which men did not look like men nor did horses look like horses. +Frederick Wingate, according to village suspicion, was slightly mad. + +But Joe Morrow's thoughts were far removed from men who might be mad. +Sometimes, if you were lucky, you found an apple imprisoned under the +snow--a late windfall that was almost a ball of liquid cider. He swung +off the road and, back in the Farley orchard, rooted diligently. +Presently, triumphant, he gave a shout. He had found not one apple, but +two. He bit through the skin, and the cold, imprisoned juices oozed into +his mouth. When the fruit was sucked dry he tossed it aside and bit into +the second. And only then did he notice how much the day had darkened. + +And suddenly, for no reason at all, he was filled with a creeping, +apprehensive dread. His eyes, startled, rested on the house where Matt +Farley had once lived, and he forgot to suck nectar through the punctured +hole in the apple. Often, since the house had been abandoned, he had +romped around the wide porches and climbed over the heavy railings. But +now, in the gathering gloom, the structure had ceased to be friendly and +inviting. Against the darkening sky this old friend of a house had all at +once become a threatening, nameless thing--a monster of lightless +windows, and locked doors, and stark, inner silence. The boy, uneasy, +began to move toward the road. Without warning he broke into a run as +though peril clutched at his heels. + +Back on the road he felt safe. Outside the house of Frederick Wingate two +men stood talking; he saw, with surprise, that one of them was Mr. +Sweetman. A little while ago the farmer had been working at his own barn, +and he was not the type given to hurry. Why, then, had he hurried over +here? The boy was conscious, as he approached, that the talking stopped. +Roscoe Sweetman called in his slow, heavy, rumbling voice: + +"Why were you running, Joe?" + +The boy gulped. "N--nothing." + +"Didn't I tell you?" the farmer cried. + +But the artist only laughed. "Coincidence, Roscoe." The laugh lingered in +the boy's ears, amused, scoffing. "Your uncle going to be home tonight, +Joe?" + +"I think so, Mr. Wingate." + +"Tell him we'll be over." + +Joe trudged on through the snow. What was this coincidence? Why had Mr. +Sweetman cried out, "Didn't I tell you?" Why were they coming to see +Uncle David? Had it something to do with the Farley house? Why had he +fled in panic from the orchard? Now that he was away from the place the +action seemed foolish and cowardly. It was one thing he would not tell +his uncle, for he could not imagine Dr. David Stone, blind though he was, +fleeing from anything. + +At eight o'clock the artist and the farmer came to the house. Frederick +Wingate called: "Don't get up, Doctor," and Dr. Stone held out a hand of +warm greeting. Lady lay at his feet and stared unwinking at the visitors. + +Joe Morrow stared, too. Was it the Farley house? Roscoe Sweetman, +ungainly and burly in his leather coat, his corduroy trousers and his +heavy boots, sat uncomfortably in a chair and rubbed a calloused hand +across a stubble of beard. Frederick Wingate, lithe and jaunty, walked +the floor and filled the boy's eyes. An opera cloak draped his shoulders, +his shirt was pleated, his collar was long and loose, and a silk tie was +gathered in a limp, nondescript bow. He seemed, in his dress, to belong +to another age; and this passion for adornments of the past was reflected +in his jewelry. His watch was old--a thick, heavy silver timepiece +elaborately scrolled that had been converted into an ungainly wrist +watch. And on the finger of his right hand was an enormous old-fashioned +ring of gold curiously twisted and knotted. + +"Doctor," the artist announced, "I have brought you a man half out of his +wits." + +"I know what I have heard," the farmer said, slowly and heavily. + +"Just what did you hear, Sweetman?" Dr. Stone asked. + +"It was last night. I was coming home from the village and took a short +cut across the Farley place to get quicker to my back door. I came close +past the house, and there were voices coming from the inside. That was +strange because there was no light on the inside. I have long had a key +from Mr. Rodgers, the real estate man, so I went home and got the key and +opened the front door. From inside came groans and cries of suffering. +Then I went and shouted for Mr. Wingate." + +"And then?" the doctor asked. + +The artist shrugged. "I brought flashlights. We searched the house from +cellar to attic. There was nobody there--nothing had been disturbed." + +"Voices?" Dr. Stone suggested. + +"He's imagining things," Frederick Wingate said impatiently. "There were +no voices." + +"I heard them plain," the farmer insisted stonily. + +"'Them'?" The blind man's voice had taken on a note of quick interest. +"What do you mean by 'them'?" + +"Ghosts," said Mr. Sweetman. "If it was imagination with me, what was it +with Joe when he came running hard this afternoon?" + +Ice crept up and down the boy's back, and his stomach chilled. His uncle +whistled long and softly. + +"What did you hear or see, Joe?" + +"Nothing." + +"But you ran?" + +"Yes, sir. From the orchard." + +"Why?" + +"I--I don't know." + +"I do," Mr. Sweetman said with stolid insistence. + +Frederick Wingate laughed. "A boy's vivid imagination, Doctor. A sudden +fear of the dark." + +"I never knew Joe to be afraid of the dark," Dr. Stone said quietly. "You +still have the key, Sweetman? By the way, how did you come into +possession of the key?" + +"I was thinking of buying," the farmer explained. "Mr. Rodgers gave me +the key so that I could look long at the house. Before that Mr. Wingate +had the key." + +The doctor asked: "Were you thinking of buying, Fred?" + +"Yes. Rodgers came to me three months ago and offered it for eight +thousand dollars. It's worth far more than that to a man who could use +it. With its good lines and its solid construction it has possibilities. +However, after looking it over I decided it wouldn't answer my purpose. I +gave the key back to Rodgers two months ago." + +"Rodgers came to me," Mr. Sweetman added. "I think maybe I will buy, +maybe for seven thousand dollars, but I do not tell him. It is bad +business to buy quick and pay what is first asked." + +"You won't want it now," Dr. Stone said. + +"Maybe. First I must think." + +After that there was a silence in the room. Joe looked from his uncle to +Frederick Wingate. The artist leaned against the mantel and seemed to +find a cynical amusement in watching the man who had come with him. +Strained lines had formed suddenly around the blind man's mouth. + +"You are afraid of ghosts, Sweetman?" he said softly. + +"I am afraid," the farmer answered heavily. + +"Yet you might buy?" + +"It is good land. I could tear down the house and sell it away, some here +and some there." Joe saw greed gleam in the dull eyes. "Maybe with ghost +talk around it will come a better price. Maybe I could yet buy for three +thousand dollars." + +"Business first, Sweetman," the doctor said pleasantly. He snapped a +finger, and at once Lady arose; and Joe, his heart pounding, hurried to +get the dog's harness. Frederick Wingate still leaned against the mantel +above the fireplace. + +"Going ghost hunting, Doctor?" + +"You can never tell what you'll find on a hunt," the doctor answered +dryly. "Coming?" + +"This is the year 1934," the artist said, amused again. "Ghosts have gone +out of fashion. I have letters to write." + +The doctor slipped the harness on the dog. Lady, alert, waited beside him +for the signal to go. Mr. Sweetman had lumbered to his feet. + +"Care for it, Joe?" Dr. Stone asked. + +The boy felt the chill again in his spine. And yet---- + +"I'll get flashlights," he said huskily. + +They went up the road through the snow in silence--three men, a boy and a +dog. A pale quarter of moon had risen, and the world was all white +silver, and even the trees seemed ghostlike and unreal. The artist +dropped out at his house to write his letters, and the others went on to +Farley's. The place, Joe thought, did not look so forbidding under the +softening touch of the moon. Frost had come with darkness, and the porch +floor creaked under their feet. Mr. Sweetman thrust a key into a lock, +the front door opened on complaining hinges, and they stepped into the +damp, black, moldiness of a deserted, closed-up dwelling. + +"The light!" the farmer cried. "Where is the light?" + +Joe jumped, and switched on a flash. He had a momentary glimpse of his +uncle, standing in the eternal darkness of the blind, serene and +untroubled, and the sight gave him courage. The beam picked out faded +walls, a chair, broken and discarded, the dusty floor, a doorway, a +yawning staircase. Outside the yellow shaft of light there was naught but +a blank, impenetrable, stealthy darkness. Darkness, and the hushed, +unbroken silence. + +"Well?" Dr. Stone asked. + +There was a sound. At first it might have been the whimper of a wind +around the eaves of the house. It rose, and fell away, and rose again. It +fell away to a plaintive, worried whimper. And then, without warning, it +became a human cry that filled the house with ghastly echoes. A +voice--unmistakably a voice--sobbed wildly in writhing anguish. As +abruptly as it had risen the cry was gone, and there was only a low, +plaintive, heartbroken lamentation. + +Mr. Sweetman's teeth chattered. "You hear it, Doctor? From all over the +house--upstairs, downstairs, everywhere." + +"Quiet," said Dr. Stone. + +There was a new sound. It seemed to come from nowhere and from +everywhere. It was gone--it came again. A measured beat, a steady rhythm +that hammered and throbbed like an unchanging pulse. Hammer and throb, +hammer and throb! It beat upon the ears. Hammer and throb! All at once +the sound stopped in the middle of a stroke and did not come again. The +dark house lay in frozen silence. + +"Doctor!" The farmer's voice shook. "You know what that was?" + +"Do you, Sweetman?" + +The man's answer came in a hoarse whisper. "I think it was a heart +beating." + +Joe's throat was a cramped vice. The flashlight shook in his hand and +made fantastic splotches of light upon the floor. + +"Upstairs," Mr. Sweetman croaked. + +They heard the sound of footsteps on the floor above. A child's +footsteps. Footsteps that ran and skipped lightly and gayly. Suddenly the +sound was gone from above and in the same room in which they stood the +same footsteps gamboled. Joe made a frantic circle of the room with the +flash. + +"See!" the farmer choked. "Nothing!" + +A new sound joined the footfalls. Joe recognized it, and his scalp +prickled. The beat of a heart! It throbbed momentarily and was gone. The +unseen child continued to romp. + +Dr. Stone's voice, low and clear, came out of the darkness. "Lady!" + +Joe's light focused on the dog. Lady, her tail whipping restlessly, had +eyes only for the blind master who had spoken. + +"Find the baby," Dr. Stone said. + +Joe's breath came and went in short, choking spurts. Find a ghost? He +kept the unsteady light trained upon the man and the dog. The merry romp +of invisible feet still filled the room. Lady, her tawny body red in the +beam from the flash, went without hesitation to the nearest wall. And +there she stopped, defeated, and whined. + +"It's all right, Lady," the blind man said quietly. His left hand held +the handle-grip of the dog's harness; his right hand thrust out the cane +until it touched the wall. He came closer and laid one hand upon the wall +itself. + +The echo of young footsteps had stopped. + +"Come." Mr. Sweetman trembled. "It is enough." + +"Wait," said Dr. Stone. + +Without warning the dark house was awake again with sound. Upstairs a +childish voice sang softly. Then footsteps once more filled the room. Not +footsteps in a home, but footsteps crunching over a graveled walk. +Sounds, for a moment, became confused and fragmentary--the icy-clutch +beating of that heart, a child humming, the wash and gurgle of water. +Footsteps again crunching gravel. Joe could almost vision a child at +play. + +The idyllic picture was broken. All at once there was a piercing, +terror-stricken scream. With amazing speed it thinned, waned, grew +fainter, as though somebody was falling, falling--. Abruptly there was a +heavy splash, the sound of water in commotion, a gurgling, strangling +voice calling faintly for help. + +Joe dropped the flash, and it went out. Mr. Sweetman cried something +inarticulate and plunged for the porch. Outside they heard him shouting: + +"Wingate! Wingate! Come quick! Wingate!" + +The doctor's voice, in the darkness, was steady. "Frightened, Joe?" + +The boy fought for control. "Not--not when I'm with you and Lady." + +"Good lad. Find your flash. Got it? Spot it on the wall. Look sharply, +now. Does that wall look strange in any way, in any way at all?" + +Joe compelled himself to make the inspection. "No, sir." + +Roscoe Sweetman's boots thudded on the porch. The farmer came in, +panting, followed by Frederick Wingate. Dr. Stone had moved away from the +wall. + +"What's this?" the artist demanded. "Moans, screams, footsteps? It sounds +like a dime novel. Let's hear them." + +But the house now held to a soundless quiet. Ten or fifteen minutes +passed. + +"It looks," Dr. Stone observed, "as though our ghost has called it a +day." + +"Sweetman," Mr. Wingate snapped impatiently, "this is the second time +you've called me from my work for nothing. Where's your ghost?" + +"He was here," the farmer insisted. He appeared to be filled with a dull +surprise. + +"The second time," Dr. Stone repeated thoughtfully. "I'd call that +strange, Fred." + +"You, too, Doctor." The artist's impatience had given place to amusement. +"I thought better of you than that." + +"Did you?" the blind man asked mildly. Joe stood rigid. His uncle's voice +had carried an undertone that had not been there before. + +But nothing more was said. They came from the house, and Roscoe +Sweetman's fumbling hand clattered the key against the lock. In the road +Frederick Wingate paused. + +"Doctor," he asked curiously, "do you actually believe in ghosts?" + +"I believe what I hear," the blind man said without emotion. + +Joe, struck with terror, hugged close to the safety of the dog. That +night his sleep was broken by dreams--dreams of a great, monstrous heart +throbbing so that all could hear it and of strange screams that faded +into a swift, strange silence. In the morning an east wind blew down from +the mountains and the sky was gray and overcast. Twice Joe walked toward +the Farley farm, and twice he turned back. He saw Mr. Sweetman, hulked +over the wheel of a small car, drive toward the village and, an hour +later, drive back. And all through the morning Dr. Stone sat with his +beloved pipe unlighted in his hands, and by that token the boy knew that +his uncle was buried in disturbed thought. + +Early in the afternoon Police Captain Tucker and Mr. Rodgers, the real +estate man, came to the house in the captain's car. Joe hovered in the +doorway. + +"Doctor," Mr. Rodgers demanded, "what's this talk about a ghost at +Farley's? Sweetman came in to see me this morning--" + +"Sweetman?" The blind man was intent. + +"Rubbed it under my nose that there was no market for a haunted house. +Said you had heard the ghost. How about it?" + +"Did Sweetman happen to be in a buying mood?" Dr. Stone asked quietly. + +"An eager mood. That's what I can't understand." + +"How much did he offer?" + +"Twenty-five hundred." + +And yesterday, Joe thought, the farmer had mentioned $3,000. He glanced +at his uncle. The blind man had struck a match to the unlighted pipe. + +"We heard a little of everything, Rodgers--groans, screams, the footsteps +of a child, singing." Blue smoke rose fragrantly from the pipe. "A child +singing," the doctor added, and turned sightless eyes toward the captain. +"What brings you into this, Tucker. Planning to arrest a ghost?" + +"Ghost?" Captain Tucker snorted. "I don't believe in ghosts. There's such +a thing as hocus-pocus to steal away the value of a piece of property. +Did you know Matt Farley?" + +"No." + +"Rodgers and I did. A friend to tie to. Matt was doing well here, but his +youngest boy, about four, died. It broke him up. Two years later he +closed the house and went away. Now he's out on the Coast, sick and +penniless, and he asked Rodgers to sell the place and get money to him. +I'm in on this to see that no swindle is put over on him." + +Dr. Stone asked: "How did the boy die, Tucker?" + +"He fell down a well and was drowned." + +Horror froze Joe Morrow's blood. Words passed back and forth in the +room--he did not hear them. By and by the three men were in the road and +headed for Farley's. He trailed along. They stopped at Mr. Sweetman's for +the key. + +"Doctor," the farmer said heavily, "not for one thousand dollars would I +go into that house again." + +"You'd buy it though," Dr. Stone said mildly. + +"Not now. Since this morning I am told that when you tear down a ghost +house the ghost follows you into yours. Maybe it is so. I do not take a +chance." + +"Who told you that?" the real estate man snapped. + +Mr. Sweetman's eyes shifted. "I do not say." + +The house, on this drab, gray day, was bleak and forbidding in its +emptiness. Cold shadows lurked in the corners. However, there was +daylight, you could see, and Joe did not feel the frozen terror of last +night. Captain Tucker relentlessly searched the house. In the end he came +up from the cellar with a paper in his hand. + +"Find anything," Mr. Rodgers asked eagerly. + +"The cover from a magazine and a scrap torn from a page. Matt's been out +of here for years; this magazine is a last August issue. How did it get +here?" + +"What magazine?" Dr. Stone asked. + +"It's called _Wonder World_. How did it get here?" + +"Sweetman has a key," the real estate man said. "Wingate did have a key. +Either one of them could have brought it in." + +"How long did Wingate have his key?" the doctor asked suddenly. + +"A month, probably. Painted in here for a while. Gave me back the key at +last and said it would cost too much to change the upstairs to get a +studio with a northern light." + +"Then these things mean nothing," the captain grumbled in disappointment. +He crumpled the cover and threw it into a blackened fireplace. + +"That scrap of paper?" Dr. Stone asked. + +"Half a dozen incomplete lines. Something torn out at random." + +"Might I have it?" + +Captain Tucker grunted in impatience. "I tell you it's merely a +scrap----Oh, take it." + +They emerged from the house, and almost at once Frederick Wingate came +out of his own dwelling wearing a paint-smeared apron. + +"By Harry!" he cried angrily, "this ceases to be a joke. Now the police +are here, and next it will be in the newspapers. They'll howl it up with +scare headlines, and the rabble will come down on us by train, and bus +and private car. The neighborhood will be marked for sordid sensation. +Sweetman's place, Farley's, mine--none of them will be worth a dollar. +Nobody has heard these screams, and footsteps and heartbeats. It's +hysterical imagination." + +"I'll come over tonight and try my imagination," Captain Tucker said. + +The artist stormed back into his house and slammed the door. + +Dr. Stone, holding to Lady's harness-grip, went serenely toward his home. +Mr. Rodgers talked warmly. Wingate had the right idea--hysteria. But Joe, +though silent, could still feel the tremor of his nerves. There had been +screams and heartbeats. And a boy had fallen into a well and drowned! + +Captain Tucker and the real estate man climbed into the police car and +were off. Instantly the unconcern fell away from the blind man. He held +out the scrap of paper. + +"Read it, Joe?" + +The boy read the few, disjointed words on the triangular strip: + + If the + effects + sonority + periments. + By means of + succeeded in + +"Does it mean anything, Uncle Dave?" he asked, puzzled. + +"Perhaps." Dr. Stone's face had become intent. "I think I'll walk into +the village with Lady. You'd better stay here, Joe. I may be gone a long +time." + +He was gone three hours. When he returned he was whistling softly. + +Darkness came early out of the drab day. Joe placed a log in the +fireplace, and Dr. Stone smoked quietly and toasted his legs in the +warmth of the blaze. At seven o'clock there were footsteps on the porch +and a knock on the door. Frederick Wingate walked in. + +"Still thinking of ghosts, Doctor?" he asked humorously. The afternoon's +ill-temper had disappeared. + +The face of the blind man was inscrutable. "Still thinking," he admitted. + +And then, for a time, the Farley house and the ghoulish beat of its +unseen heart seemed forgotten, and Joe listened to sparkling talk of the +days when Mr. Wingate had been a student in Paris and Vienna. Abruptly, +in the middle of a sentence, the man stopped short. + +"What time will Tucker be back tonight, Doctor?" + +"Eight-thirty." + +The artist pulled back the sleeve of his coat and glanced at the heavy, +elaborately-scrolled, silver wrist watch. "Eight-ten," he said. And then, +seeing Joe's fascinated eyes upon the watch, he continued to hold up the +bared wrist. "A curious trinket, Joe. I picked it up in Austria. Keeps +time to the split second. But it has a curious trick. Do you hear it +ticking?" + +"No, sir." + +"If your wrist happens to turn in exactly the right position----" The man +moved his wrist, and all at once the boy heard the watch ticking out an +emphatic, muffled stroke. Again the wrist moved, and the timepiece was no +longer audible. The artist laughed. "Not bad, eh, Joe?" + +Joe said "Gosh!" and looked at his uncle. Dr. Stone had ceased to smoke. + +"It's going to be a bad night, Doctor," Frederick Wingate went on. +"There's snow in the air. I'd advise you to sit snug and let Tucker do +his ghost-hunting alone. It will be wasted time." + +"Why are you so sure of that, Fred?" + +"Come, come, Doctor. You know how I feel about goblins." + +"Of course. I was wondering. Last night you insisted we hadn't heard +sounds. Tonight you become more positive. You predict we're not going to +hear anything. Why this added certainty? Is it because you had removed +the cable running between your house and Farley's?" + +Joe Morrow suddenly found himself tight and expectant. The good humor had +been washed from the artist's face. + +"It was hard," the doctor said serenely, "to locate exactly where the +sound originated. Lady, though, took me to one wall. After that, the +trick was plain. A blind man's touch is sensitive, Fred. I felt the +vibration in the wall. I asked Joe if the wall looked at all strange. He +said it didn't. Who could break into a wall and then doctor it so it +would let out sound freely and still look untouched? Who but an artist +accustomed to skilfully blending colors? + +"But at first I suspected Sweetman. The man's anxiety to take advantage +of a ghost scare and buy cheaply fooled me. We all stumble at times. I +should have seen from the start it couldn't be Sweetman. He was greedy, +but he didn't have the brains. Then, too, there were no creepy +manifestations whenever you appeared. By the way, who told Sweetman the +ghost would invade his house if he pulled down Farley's? You?" + +"You're stumbling now, Doctor, aren't you?" the artist asked. Joe saw +that his eyes had become sharp and watchful. + +"Not now," the blind man said. "The road is too plain. Today, when Tucker +searched the house, he found the cover of the August _Miracle World_ and +a fragmentary scrap torn from a magazine page. Only ten words were on +that scrap, Fred, but one of them was 'sonority.' It's a word dealing +with sound. On a bare chance I dropped in at the public library. There I +learned that one Frederick Wingate is a subscriber to _Miracle World_, +and each month turns the magazine over to the library after he has read +it. But this Mr. Wingate did not turn over his August copy; the library, +wishing to keep a complete file, sent for the August number. There was a +significant article in that number, Fred. The librarian read it to me. It +had to do with sound effects by radio and telephone." + +Joe's lips were parted breathlessly. Frederick Wingate stood as though he +had lost the power of movement. + +"I'm not up on those things. They developed after I became blind. Exactly +how you worked the trick I do not know. After reading the August number +you concocted your scheme. You took your time. But in December you got +the key from Rhodes on the pretext you wanted to paint in the house and +try out the light. In that month you did your wiring, broke through +walls, inserted your loud speakers and tuned them to the proper pitch. +The transmitting cable from your house to Farley's was probably laid on +the ground under the snow. No doubt you thought you would not have to +give more than five or six manifestations. Let the ghost talk start. +After that you could take up the cable. The thing would be done. Farley's +property would be ruined; you'd buy it in for a song. + +"What did you do from December to March? Practice the act? Anyway, you +ran into the unexpected. Sweetman also saw a chance to buy cheaply. So +you filled him with the fear of inheriting a ghost. Then, when the road +seemed clear, Tucker came in. You hadn't expected the police. Today, when +you protested to Tucker, Rodgers thought you were furiously indignant. I +read your voice better. You were alarmed. So tonight, as soon as darkness +fell, you took up the incriminating cable. You're wealthy. Why does a man +of means stoop to small cupidities? Is it because he thinks it clever and +smart?" + +The artist spoke hoarsely. "You'll admit, Doctor, that this is all rather +circumstantial?" + +"It was until a little while ago. Then I found the absolute proof. +Sometimes a thing becomes so much a part of a man that he forgets he has +it and it betrays him. Do you mind telling me the time?" + +The artist glanced at his wrist-watch. "It is now----" His eyes, +startled, stared fixedly at the doctor. "I see," he said. + +Dr. Stone relighted the pipe. "Might I make a suggestion. We don't want +Tucker in on this. I'm more interested in Matt Farley. My suggestion is +that you buy the place even below its worth, eight thousand dollars. +Eight thousand will be a fortune to a man sick and penniless." + +Wet blotches fell against the windows. Snow! + +"Doctor," Frederick Wingate said, "will you believe me when I say I did +not know Farley was destitute?" He picked his coat from a chair. "I'll +see Rodgers in the morning and put down a deposit. Good night." + +The blazing log broke and fell, and sparks showered up the chimney. So +there really had been no ghost! Relief went through Joe Morrow in a +fervent tide. + +"Did--did you really have the proof, Uncle David?" + +"The absolute proof, Joe. You saw it yourself." + +"I saw it?" The boy was bewildered. + +Dr. Stone stretched back in the chair and placed his hands behind his +head. "I don't know whether he used a telephone mouthpiece or a +microphone. Whatever he used he was right in front of it. His hands must +have been active--he had to produce the sounds of water, footsteps, +gravel. Every time the watch began its mystifying tick----" + +"Oh!" Joe breathed. + +"Yes," the blind man said quietly. "You and Sweetman thought it was the +beating of a human heart." + + + + + AS A MAN SPEAKS + + +"Hard!" said Police Captain Tucker. "That's what he is, Doctor--hard," +and the policeman drove a smacking fist into the palm of his other hand +to emphasize the point. + +The dog, lying in front of the fireplace, lifted her head. Dr. David +Stone puffed his pipe serenely in the warmth of the blazing logs. The +winter wind whistled about the house, a shutter banged like the report of +a gun, and Joe Morrow jumped. + +"Talks tough, Doctor, and sticks out his chin as though asking you what +you were going to do about it. I've sent out his fingerprints. Wouldn't +be surprised if it turned out he was a bit of a gangster." + +"You have him safely in jail," Dr. Stone pointed out. + +"Safe enough for the present," Captain Tucker admitted, "but I can't hold +him forever on mere suspicion." + +"Then you're not charging him with murder?" + +"How can I? You can't prove a murder without producing a body. Where's +the corpse? Where's Boothy Wilkes, alive or dead? He hasn't been +around----. You pass his place every day, Joe. When did you see him +last?" + +"Wednesday," Joe Morrow, Dr. Stone's nephew, answered. "He asked me had I +seen Jud Cory hanging around." + +"Nobody's seen him since Wednesday. That was six days ago. That morning +he and Jud had a talk outside the post office--something about money--and +suddenly Jud yelled out that he'd kill him. Dozen people heard it. And +since late Wednesday Boothy hasn't been seen." + +"Why did Jud want to kill him?" the blind doctor asked. + +"How do I know?" + +"Might be worth looking into," the calm voice drawled. + +"Haven't I tried to sweat it out of him? Haven't I grilled him trying to +make him tell where he hid the body? What do I get? A stuck-out chin, and +a scowl, and him telling me he's not a squealer. That's gangster talk." + +The blind man's head rested against the back of the chair; his sightless +eyes seemed to stare unblinkingly at some object on the ceiling; the pale +face had the calmness of graven stone. Joe, highly excited by all this +talk of murder and a hidden body, pulled at a thought that had occurred +to him more than once in the past. Could anything happen that would shake +his uncle out of that unruffled tranquillity? + +"How old did you say he was, Captain?" + +"Twenty." + +The doctor sat up and knocked the ashes of his pipe into the fireplace, +"No boy is hard at twenty, Captain. He only thinks he's hard. Mind if I +talk to him?" + +Captain Tucker sighed. "I was hoping you would." + +Dr. Stone reached for the dog's harness. "More work for us, old girl," he +said, and the dog looked at him steadily. Joe wondered if she understood. +They went out to the small police car, the tawny shepherd anxiously +leading the blind man through the snow to the running-board. Crowded into +the car, Joe and the dog in the rear seat, they rode toward the village. + +"How long is it since Jud Cory left here?" Dr. Stone asked. + +"Seven years. That's what I can't understand. Why should he come back +after seven years to do a murder? He used to live with Boothy; did chores +for his keep. We've sent for his brother." + +"Jud's?" + +"No; Boothy's." + +The doctor said, surprised: "I didn't know he had a brother." + +"Neither did anybody else. But for that matter Boothy was a tight-lipped +man who told his business to no one. After the neighbors reported him +missing we searched the house. Found a will and a note written the day +before the quarrel outside the post office. The note said if anything +happened to him----. See that, Doctor? He was afraid that something would +happen." + +"He wrote that note the day before Jud threatened to kill him," the blind +man said slowly. + +Joe thought that Captain Tucker had the look of a man stumbling over a +rock he had not seen. "Well----." The captain coughed awkwardly. "Why +couldn't Jud have gone to the house several times before that meeting +outside the post office? Certainly he didn't come here planning to loiter +in the streets until Boothy appeared. Anyway, the note said if anything +happened to him to notify his brother, Otis Wilkes, at once." + +"Any witnesses to the will?" + +"No. Oh, it's in his handwriting. We proved that." + +"Who gets his property?" + +"This brother, Otis Wilkes." + +Dr. Stone said, "I'd like to meet Otis." Joe, sitting taut on the rear +seat, had the feeling that his uncle had touched something hidden in the +dark. The car halted outside the village lock-up. + +"I won't go down with you," Captain Tucker grunted. "He wouldn't talk if +I were there." + +"I'll want Joe with me," Dr. Stone said, and a turnkey led man, boy and +dog down a damp staircase. It was the first time Joe had ever seen this +forbiddingly bleak corridor of cells, and his heart grew heavy with a +sick chill. A key rasped in a lock, and the jail attendant threw open an +iron-barred door. + +"Somebody to see you, Cory." + +"I don't want to see nobody," a voice answered harshly. + +The blind man said, "Lady, left," and followed the dog into the cell. Joe +saw a disheveled youth who sat scowling upon a cot. At sight of them he +arose with an air of bravado. The cell door closed. + +"What's the idea?" the harsh voice demanded. "Trying to scare me with a +dog?" + +"Nobody's trying to scare you, Jud. Don't you remember me? I'm Dr. +Stone." + +"Another cop?" + +"No," the blind man said gently; "your friend. And here's another +friend--Joe Morrow. You ought to remember Joe. He was only a little tyke +then, and always followed you when you brought the cows in from pasture." + +Joe saw the hard eyes waver. At that moment Jud Cory looked, not the +murderous gangster, but a frightened, bewildered, sick-souled boy. + +"He always brought me a cake with raisins in it," Jud said huskily. And +then, like some wild animal touched by danger, the youth had sprung back +against the wall of the cell. "Hey! Trying to pull soft stuff on me? +Nothing doing, I don't talk." + +"You've had your share of bitter days, haven't you?" Dr. Stone asked +quietly. + +The hard eyes wavered. + +"I knew your father, Jud. It doesn't seem possible that his son could +butcher a man for a few dollars." + +"It wasn't a few dollars," the lad cried thickly. "It----" + +Joe shivered. Then this had really been a murder for a lot of dollars. +The youth had choked off the sentence and stood against the stone wall +shaken by the appalling significance of what he had said. + +"Jud," the blind man said, "don't try to fool me and don't try to fool +yourself. You're just a poor, miserable kid who's caught in a squeeze +that's too tight for him. Don't you think you ought to tell me." + +The chin wasn't a hard chin now. It quivered, tried to steady itself; and +suddenly, like a tree that snaps in a storm, Jud Cory broke. One moment +he stood against the wall, still suspicious, still afraid; the next he +was on the side of his cot, his head in his hands, sobbing. + +"You don't know what it's been like in here, Doctor. Everybody telling me +I was a murderer and asking what I did with the body. When I said I'd +kill him I was mad. I didn't mean it. I tell you, Doctor, I didn't mean +it." + +The blind man groped across the cell, and sat upon the cot, and one hand +reached out and rested on the boy's shoulder. + +The sobbing had stopped. "We--we lived in the city," came from between +the lad's hands, "my pop and me, and pop got sick and they said he should +go to the country. I don't know how it happened, but we came to Boothy +Wilkes'. I liked it there. Then pop died, and that changed everything. I +was nine then, nine nearly ten, and Wilkes made me do all the +chores--said I had to earn my keep. Telling me every day I was a pauper +and threatening to send me away to the pauper farm. Then he began to +shout and yell that I ate too much. That was when I lit out. + +"I went to Philadelphia and sold newspapers. They told me to keep out of +the way of the cops or they'd slap me in a home because I ought to be in +school. It wasn't so bad in the summer, but in the winter it was tough. +Snowy days I wouldn't sell many papers, and maybe I'd have to sleep in a +hallway that night." + +"How old were you then, Jud?" + +"About fourteen." + +Joe shot a glance at his uncle. The unruffled tranquillity was gone. The +blind man's face was dark with a bitter wrath. + +"I figured I'd go some place where there wouldn't be so much cold, so I +beat it to California. There I got jobs doing this and that, and got +along. One day, when I was out of work and feeling pretty low, a man +stopped me and asked wasn't I Jud Cory. He said I looked as though I was +on my uppers, and I said I was. He said I must have gone through the +money pretty fast, and I asked him what money, and he said he had been +cashier for the bank here and that just a few days before my father died +he was sent for, and went to Wilkes' house, and that my father put nine +thousand dollars in Wilkes' account for me. It seemed pop didn't want any +dealings with lawyers and courts and thought Wilkes was honest. Maybe +this man was telling me straight and maybe he wasn't. I got thinking it +over, and it seemed maybe Wilkes had laid it on me heavy so I'd light out +and he'd have the money to himself. So I came back here, and the first +time I spoke to Wilkes I knew it was true." + +"How?" Dr. Stone asked. + +"By his face." + +"What was the name of this man, Jud?" + +"I--I don't know. I got so excited I forgot to ask, and when I went +looking for him afterwards I couldn't find him. Does that make any +difference?" + +"I'm afraid so." + +Jud Cory's hands went out in a hopeless gesture. "I don't suppose +anybody'll believe me." He was up from the cot, frantic, terror-stricken. +"But I didn't kill him. I didn't." + +"I know you didn't," Dr. Stone said quietly. "I've known that for the +past ten minutes." + +Serenity had come back upon the blind man. Holding the handle-grip of +Lady's harness he followed the dog up the damp stairway to the +headquarters room. There he told Captain Tucker Jud Cory's story. + +"A fairy tale," the police captain scoffed. "He got it out of a book or +the movies. Anyway, it doesn't explain the riddle. Where's Boothy Wilkes' +body?" + +"Let's go to the bank," the doctor suggested. + +Again they rode in the police car, and again Lady cautiously conducted +her master through the snow. Bryan Smith, president of the bank, admitted +them to his private office and closed the door. + +"The Wilkes case, gentlemen?" + +Captain Tucker shrugged. "In a way. Cory has burst forth with a wild----" + +"Just a moment, Captain," Dr. Stone said sharply. "Mr. Smith, did a +cashier resign eight or nine years ago?" + +"Eight or nine years?" The banker considered. "That would be Herman Lang. +He resigned about that time." + +"Do you know why he resigned?" + +"Yes. He had an offer to join a land development company." + +"Where?" + +"In California." + +Joe saw Captain Tucker's mouth sag, but his uncle's face was impassive. +Bryan Smith lowered his voice. + +"Ordinarily, gentlemen, we do not discuss our depositors' business. +However, there is something I think you should know. Boothy Wilkes drew +out five thousand dollars in cash the day he vanished. Cash!" + +The sag that had been in Captain Tucker's jaw was gone. Out in the car he +spoke a positive judgment. + +"There's your motive, Doctor. Find Boothy's body and Cory'll soon tell us +what he did with the five thousand dollars. Anyway, we all know Boothy +kept a tight fist on a dime. Suppose he did rob the boy. Is that any +excuse for murder?" + +"You haven't yet proved Jud did commit a murder," the blind man suggested +gently. + +"The body?" Captain Tucker snapped an impatient finger. "That's only a +matter of time. It couldn't have been taken far." + +Outside the village town hall a constable awaited their coming. Otis +Wilkes, he said, had arrived from Baltimore and was now at the Wilkes +farm. Captain Tucker turned the car about. Fifteen minutes later they +swung into a driveway between trees and skidded to a stop. On the Wilkes +porch a thin, wiry man paced back and forth restlessly. + +"I'd know him for a Wilkes anywhere," Captain Tucker said in an +undertone. "Favors Boothy in looks, only this one's all whiskered. Mind +if I use Lady while you're here, Doctor?" + +"What for?" + +"Clues. She might scent us something." + +As they left the car and came toward the house, Joe Morrow had eyes only +for the man on the porch. A voice called down to them across the railing. + +"Captain Tucker?" The tone carried a high, nasal twang. "Land o' Goshen, +I've been a-waitin' for you until I'm like t' freeze." The sentence ended +in a choking, sputtering cough. The man spat violently with a burst of +breath. "Come in; come in out of the cold." + +The house, untenanted for a week, was scarcely warmer than the outdoors. +But it was the house from which a man had disappeared, and Joe Morrow +kept staring about uneasily as though expecting to find a ghost. They +went into a front room that overlooked some of the land bordering the +road. Here, at least, there was sun. + +"Did they get him?" Otis Wilkes demanded. "This Jud Cory?" Speech was +momentarily halted by that same choking cough, that same sputtering +outburst of breath. "This Jud Cory who killed Boothy." + +Joe was conscious of a sudden, intent look on his uncle's face. Captain +Tucker answered very, very slowly. + +"Did you stop at the police station, or did you come straight to the +house?" + +"To the house, of course. Where else with maybe Boothy lying dead?" + +"How did you know he was dead?" Captain Tucker demanded. + +"He wrote me, Boothy did." One hand made a frantic reach for the inside +pocket of his coat and drew forth a folded paper. "Boothy said it was on +him. Here!" + +Captain Tucker read the letter aloud: + + Dear Otis: Like as not you'll be surprised to get this letter seeing as + we have not seen or heard of each other in twenty years. But when a man + feels he is going to be took, it is natural he should turn to his only + kin. I have wrote a will leaving everything to you, and you will be + notified when necessary. If anything should happen to me sudden, look + for Jud Cory. He has made talk of killing me, and I think he is the + kind to do it. + + Your brother, + Boothy. + +Captain Tucker folded the letter. "Well, Doctor?" he asked in +poorly-concealed satisfaction. + +The blind man's face was inscrutable. "Does a man facing death, a man +known to keep a tight fist on a dime, stop to draw five thousand dollars +in cash from a bank?" + +"Boothy was a-tryin' t' buy him off," Mr. Wilkes shrilled. + +"How do you know that, Mr. Wilkes?" + +"Reasonable, ain't it? Reckon a man would ruther pay five thousand +dollars than be laid out stiff. What about Jud Cory?" + +"We have him," Captain Tucker answered, "but Boothy's missing. We believe +he's been murdered." + +"Then why you standin' 'round wastin' time doin' nothin'?" Mr. Wilkes' +outburst arose to a tremulous falsetto. "Find him. I'll pay a reward." + +"We're starting a search now with the dog," Captain Tucker soothed the +agitated man. "If you wish to come along----" + +But Mr. Wilkes was seized with a shuddering reluctance. "It ain't fitten' +I should, seein' as folks might say I was powerful anxious t' find him +so's t' claim the property. Besides----" Straggling hairs again bothered +his mouth, and there was another spell of coughing and sputtering. +"Besides, I ain't so spry anymore and the cold gits into my bones. I'll +set here by the window in the sun an' watch out through the apple +orchard." + +"It's a fine orchard," Captain Tucker observed. + +"Boothy set great store by it," Mr. Wilkes said feelingly. "Blasted the +soil with dynamite before settin' out the trees." + +"Coming, Captain?" Dr. Stone asked. + +There was an undercurrent to the words. Joe, roused out of his +expectation of a ghost, saw that the strained lines were gone from his +uncle's mouth and that now the face was placid and serene. The boy knew +the sign. Once more Dr. Stone had touched something hidden in obscurity. +Light had come to the brain that lay behind those blind eyes. And so they +came outdoors, to the snow and the frozen ground. + +"Careful, Doctor," Captain Tucker warned. + +"Lady won't let me on ice," the doctor answered. "Search, old girl." + +The dog winnowed through the snow, back and forth, ever advancing. The +quest took them past the house, on past the summer kitchen. Suddenly the +animal, no longer advancing, began to dig in the snow with her paws. + +"She's found something," Joe cried. + +Out from under the snow Lady dragged a hat. Captain Tucker seized it +eagerly. + +"It's Boothy's, Doctor. Here are his initials. B. W." + +The doctor asked a question. "Where are we, Joe?" + +Joe's throat ached. "On the driveway to the barn." + +"Doesn't it strike you as strange, Captain, that Boothy's hat should be +found here?" + +"What's strange about it? Isn't this the driveway?" + +"That's exactly what's strange about it," the blind man answered. "If +somebody wanted to dispose of a body would he drag it through the open or +would he seek cover? Might not the hat have been left here to be found?" + +But the police officer was absorbed in a fresh discovery. The hat was +sodden with snow; and yet, darker than the soak of water, was a stain +above the sweat-band. + +"Doctor, there's something on this hat." + +"What?" + +"Blood." + +Dr. Stone's lips formed to a soundless whistle. "Boothy's blood?" + +"Why not?" + +"Because, Captain, if that had been human blood Lady would have shied, +and whimpered, and trembled. She would have called our attention to it, +but she would not have brought the hat out to us." + +Captain Tucker flared into temper. "Doctor, that's going too far. Even a +clever dog is only a dog. We're going back." + +The police officer carried the gruesome find to the house. Joe stumbled +in the snow. There had been that dark stain near the sweat-band; he had +seen it, and was troubled. Was Uncle David wrong? They crossed the porch +and entered the room where Mr. Wilkes waited, and on the instant the man +cried out in nasal horror: + +"It's Boothy's hat. And there's blood on it." + +"I'm going back to the village," Captain Tucker said hurriedly. "I'm +coming back with a crew of men. We'll find what's hidden here. We'll find +it if we have to dig up every foot of this farm." + +The captain was gone. The outer door closed. Dr. Stone still stood just +within the room. Outside a motor roared, and suddenly the blind man +shouted. + +"Tucker! See that Herman Lang comes here as soon as he arrives." + +It seemed to Joe that Mr. Wilkes leaped and jerked in every muscle. +"Lang? What about Herman Lang?" Another fit of sputtering and coughing +seized him, and he spat violently. "What about him?" + +"Oh!" The doctor's voice was soft. "So you know Herman Lang?" + +"Never heerd o' him. Who is he?" + +"He's the bank cashier who was at this house the day Jud Cory's father +trusted Boothy with nine thousand dollars. Jud came here to get that +money." + +"Bah! A likely tale. What am I supposed to do about it?" + +The blind man, holding to the dog's leash, stepped well within the room. +Joe edged a little to the side. He had been with his uncle on so many +adventures he had developed an instinct that told him when a trap was to +be sprung. And instinct told him a trap was to be sprung now. + +"You might answer a few questions, Mr. Wilkes. You and Boothy hadn't seen +or heard from each other in twenty years?" + +"Maybe it was twenty-one years." + +"Then how did you know Boothy used dynamite to break the hardpan when he +set out his orchard. Those trees were planted in the spring of 1920, +thirteen years ago." + +Joe saw the Adam's apple in the man's throat work convulsively. "Likely I +heard about it somewhere." + +"When Tucker came in, how did you know he had Boothy's hat?" + +"It must have been Boothy's--Boothy allers wore the same kind." + +"How did you know of the blood? You were across the room. You couldn't +have distinguished a stain on a wet hat. Or--" The blind man paused. "Or +did you know, before we left the room, that we were going to come back +with a blood-stained hat?" + +Joe could almost feel the man tremble. But no words came from the stark, +startled lips. + +"Nine thousand dollars," Dr. Stone mused. "Simple interest for eleven +years at six per cent. Five hundred and forty dollars a year. A total, +principal and interest, of fourteen thousand nine hundred forty dollars. +Sit down, Wilkes." + +Mr. Wilkes sat down. + +"Make out a check to Jud Cory for fourteen thousand nine hundred forty +dollars." + +Joe expected shrill, nasal protest. Instead the man sat there, huddled in +tremulous abjection. By and by the fingers, strong and work-hardened, +began to move slowly; and with that Joe saw a look of shrewd, calculating +cunning steal into the eyes. He was like a man who, lost, sees a glimmer +of hope. + +"Doctor, most likely this Jud Cory's been a-tellin' you a passel o' lies. +But it ain't fitten to speak ill o' the dead, and Boothy's my brother and +I don't hanker t' have folks a-whisperin' about him and makin' light o' +his good name. Tell you what I'll do, Doctor. I'll give this Jud Cory +enough to stop his mouth. Likely he'll need it, anyway, t' pay his trial +lawyer." + +"That's kind of you," Dr. Stone said dryly. + +Mr. Wilkes wrote a check and pressed it into the blind man's hand. + +"It's no more than fair to tell you, Wilkes, that Herman Lang is not +expected here." + +With a snarl the man was on his feet. "Give me that check!" Lady gave a +warning growl, and on the instant the grasping hand was stayed. Mr. +Wilkes shrank back. + +"It would be a simple matter to telegraph and bring him East," the doctor +said pointedly. + +As slowly as it had come the shrewd cunning faded out of the man's eyes. +He sank back into the chair. + +Dr. Stone held out the slip of paper. "How much is it for, Joe?" + +"Five thousand dollars, Uncle David." This time it was the boy who +trembled. Five thousand dollars was the amount of cash Boothy Wilkes had +drawn from the bank. + +"Signed by whom?" + +"By Otis Wilkes." + +Without haste the doctor folded the check twice, and tore it into bits. + +"Write another check," he ordered quietly. "This time write it for +fourteen thousand nine hundred forty dollars. This time sign your own +name. Sign it Boothy Wilkes." + +To Joe Morrow the world went topsy-turvy. Through an incredulous haze he +saw a snarling man sign a check and almost hurl it into his uncle's face. +As they came out upon the porch with Lady, Captain Tucker's car swung +into the driveway from the road. + +"I'll have men here in half an hour. Where's Otis, Doctor?" + +"Gone. Boothy's inside." + +"Boothy?" + +"Otis, if you like that name better," the doctor said pleasantly. + +For the second time that day Captain Tucker's jaw sagged. Dr. Stone +brought out his pipe, filled it, and puffed with calm enjoyment. + +"You see," he said, "Jud Cory told us the truth. When he arrived with the +information that he knew of the money that was his, it was like plunging +a knife into Boothy's heart. Money has rather been Boothy's god. The way +to save the money came with Jud's threat to kill him that so many persons +overheard. Boothy went to the bank, drew out five thousand dollars, wrote +the will and the note that you found, wrote himself the letter he showed +you, and went to Baltimore to await the results he knew would follow. +When it was discovered he was gone people remembered Jud's threat. And so +Jud was arrested, and you wrote Otis to come on, and the search began for +a body that would never be found. + +"Boothy had it figured out nicely. As Otis he would have five thousand +dollars to live on. There was no hurry. Let Jud Cory stew in jail. He +would never be tried for murder, for without a corpse no murder could be +proved. Public opinion, though, might try Jud for threatening life, or +for disturbing the peace, or for something else. He might even be sent to +the county penitentiary for nine months. All right; let him go. When he +was released he would be so sick of the game, so glad to be at liberty +again, that he'd take the first train out and never come back. And then, +after an interval, Boothy would reappear. What story would he have told? +Well, he might have claimed a complete loss of memory--aphasia, as it is +called. And there he'd be with his nine thousand dollars intact and Jud +Cory gone for good." + +Captain Tucker had recovered from his chagrin. "I can see all that now, +Doctor. But how did you know he was Boothy? Man, he had me completely +fooled." + +"There were several signs," Dr. Stone answered. "An apple orchard, for +one; a hat for another. But the real give-away--" He passed the pipe +under his nose and inhaled the aroma of the burning tobacco. "You wear +false teeth, Captain?" + +"What has that to do with it?" Captain Tucker demanded impatiently. + +"Took you a while to get used to them, didn't it?" + +"Of course." + +"There's the answer. Boothy didn't take time to get used to them. They +kept straggling out of place and interfering with his speech." + +"What are you talking about?" Captain Tucker cried impatiently. "False +teeth?" + +"No," the blind man said mildly. "False whiskers." + + + + + ARM OF GUILT + + +Hurrying along the shadowed road beside Dr. David Stone and Lady, Joe +Morrow was conscious of the hard pounding of his heart against his ribs. +The telephone call from Police Captain Tucker had been terse and abrupt, +but out of it had come alarm and revelation. The explosion he and his +uncle had heard an hour ago had not been the backfire of an automobile, +but the murderous bark of a pistol. And Ira Close, the Foster's hired +man, had been shot, and nine-year-old Billy Foster had been kidnaped. Joe +gulped. He had seen the small boy at school that afternoon. + +Moonlight flooded the yard in the rear of Ben Foster's house, and black +shapes stood out in sharp relief. Pressed against the powerful flanks of +the dog Joe strained his eyes and made them out: Mr. Foster, agitated, +walking back and forth restlessly; Captain Tucker staring hard at the +ground, and a third man--Why, the third man was Ira Close. The boy gave a +suppressed cry. + +"He's there, Uncle David." + +"Billy?" Dr. Stone asked eagerly. + +"No, sir; Ira. Ira wasn't shot badly. It's only his hand. His hand is +bandaged." + +Dr. Stone said: "Lady, left," and the dog swung them into the Foster +yard. At the sound of their feet on the driveway gravel Mr. Foster gave a +cry and hurried toward them. + +"Thank God, Doctor, you're here. If you can find him, if you can get him +back----" + +"Are you sure," the doctor broke in quietly, "he hasn't gone to a +friend's house and stayed for supper? Small boys sometimes forget to come +home." + +Captain Tucker shook his head. "It's kidnaping. We have the ransom note. +Five thousand dollars." + +"Ten thousand!" Mr. Foster cried wildly. "Fifteen! Any amount, so long as +he comes back unharmed." + +"Easy," said Dr. Stone, and took out his pipe and reached into a pocket +for tobacco. Amid the hysterical panic he was controlled, steady. "If +we're to get any place we must try to think clearly. When was the boy +seen last?" + +Captain Tucker answered. "Four o'clock." + +"Then we know he wasn't kidnaped until after four. And about eight +o'clock you were given a ransom note. That means the kidnapers were in +the neighborhood an hour ago. How did the note get here?" + +"It was brought to me," said Mr. Foster. + +"Who brought it?" + +"Ira." + +Dr. Stone's hand came out of his pocket without the tobacco pouch. Joe, +startled, saw his uncle's eyes turn, as though by instinct, toward the +hired man he could not see. Ira Close, always given to a dull, stupid +sullenness, shifted his thick-set, muscular body awkwardly. + +"I sent him out to find Billy," Mr. Foster explained. "The boy had been +gone since four o'clock when he went out of the house with a plate of +food for his rabbits. I thought he might have gone trailing after that +organ-grinder----" + +"What organ-grinder?" Dr. Stone asked sharply. + +Again it was Captain Tucker who answered. "A stranger, doctor. Gave his +name as Pasquale Monetti. Came to the police station four days ago and +paid two dollars for a permit. Had a monkey on a chain. The kids have +been following him all over the village." + +The doctor said quietly: "How did you come to get the note, Ira?" + +"I went for Billy like Mr. Foster said." The man's voice was a low +rumble. "Down by the Howard's woodlot there's a bang and I know I'm +shot." + +"The right thumb," said Captain Tucker. "The bullet creased the skin." + +"It bled," Ira Close said unemotionally, and Joe saw blood on the +handkerchief-bandage. "He tells me not to move, and ties my arms behind, +and puts the note in my pocket." + +"He," Dr. Stone said. "What he, Ira?" + +"The organ-grinder." + +"You're sure?" + +"Yes." + +"Did you see him?" + +"No; I have my back turned. He does not talk our kind of American." + +Captain Tucker gave a grunt of exasperation. "That's too thin for +identification. A thousand men within twenty miles might talk with a +foreign accent. I can't understand this, Doctor. If somebody wanted to +use Ira to carry a message why did they shoot close enough to hit him?" + +"I wonder," Dr. Stone said gravely. His hand went into his pocket and +this time came out with the pouch. Slowly, almost leisurely, he filled +the pipe. + +Joe Morrow, groping in the dark for light, abruptly grasped the cords of +memory. "Ira could have known his voice," the boy cried, excited. + +"How's that?" Captain Tucker barked. + +"I saw Ira talking to the organ-grinder yesterday in front of the bank." + +"I asked him about the monkey," Ira said stolidly. "I thought maybe I +might buy one for Billy." + +"Why didn't you tell us that?" Captain Tucker flared in a temper. "Here +we're wasting time----" + +"And my boy being taken farther away every minute," Mr. Foster groaned in +sick despair. "Do something! I tell you I can't stand this waiting, +waiting! Do something!" + +"Perhaps," Dr. Stone said gently, "we have already done something. How +was Ira tied, Tucker? Tight?" + +"I've seen them tied tighter. Didn't have to cut the rope--slipped it +down over his elbows. A botchy job." + +"This organ-grinder?" + +"Swarthy, with a heavy mustache. Not over four and one-half feet tall and +weighing about 135." + +"How much do you weigh, Ira?" the doctor asked. + +The hired man answered without interest. "One hundred eighty-five +pounds." + +Joe, trying to read his uncle's face, found it inscrutable. And yet the +question meant something. The pipe had gone out; Dr. Stone lighted it +again. + +"Let's try to reconstruct this crime, Tucker. At four o'clock Billy left +the house with feed for the rabbits. After that--a blank. Did he feed the +rabbits and wander on? Did he ever reach the warren?" + +"No," Mr. Foster choked. "Whatever happened to him happened here." + +And then, for the first time, Joe saw what lay upon the ground in the +moonlight--the shattered pieces of a blue plate, scraps of lettuce and +carrot, and a boy's cap. Evidently, Billy Foster had never reached the +rabbit warren with the feed. While Captain Tucker described the scene to +the blind man, Joe picked up the cap. Why, they were in full view of the +house. Could a boy be kidnaped in broad daylight from his own doorstep? + +"It couldn't have happened," Captain Tucker insisted testily. "Not here. +The place is too open. Probably something startled the boy and he dropped +the plate." + +"If he were frightened," Dr. Stone asked mildly, "why didn't he run to +the house? What frightened him? Did whatever happen happen so quickly +that there was no time to run? And then there's something else." + +"What?" Captain Tucker snapped. + +"The cap. It would take quite a fright to pop a cap off a boy's head." +The blind man put the pipe back in his pocket. "You've kept track of this +organ-grinder, haven't you, Tucker? Where has he been staying?" + +"Petey Ring's shack on the river." + +"I think," Dr. Stone said, "it might be worth our while to go down toward +the river." A dozen steps toward Captain Tucker's car he paused. "You'd +better have that finger looked at, Ira. Gun-shot wounds can develop +lock-jaw." + +"Doctors want money," Ira Close said resentfully. + +"It's a common failing," the blind man observed pleasantly. + +Joe tingled. Something lay behind those four words. But again the bland +face was expressionless. + +Petey Ring, unkempt and wrapped in a soiled apron, met them in the frowsy +public room of this river "hotel." + +"Cap," he said, "I was just thinking of giving you a buzz. You know that +bird who's been penny snatching with a monk?" + +Joe's mouth fell open, and Dr. Stone stopped dead in his tracks. + +"Where is he?" Captain Tucker demanded. + +"Ask me. I ain't clapped a peeper on him since this morning. Looks to me +like he's taken it on the lam. You got a line out for him, Cap?" + +The captain shrugged. "Just checking up, Petey. What time did he shove +off." + +"You're asking me? I thought he was out working his graft. Then there's a +jabbering from his room, and there's the monk all alone in there throwing +fits." + +Dr. Stone's voice cut in. "Where's his room?" + +Petey, stepping past the dog warily, led the way. The room was a squalor +of untidiness. Dirty blankets were tumbled on the army cot bed, and a +cracked mirror stood upon a paint-chipped dresser. The hand-organ, gaudy +with cheap trappings, leaned in a corner and, attached to it by a light +chain was a wizened, wrinkled, black-faced monkey. The animal flew into a +rage, climbed the length of its chain and, from the top of a +window-casing, shrieked and chattered. + +"Ira was right," Captain Tucker said harshly. "And we're too late." + +Joe's throat ached. Jolly Billy Foster taken by violence and held for +ransom! Hidden away in some dark hole, probably, homesick and +terror-stricken. He looked at his uncle. The blind man's face had become +intent. + +"This room reeks," Dr. Stone said, "with the stench of cheap shaving +soap. Search it." + +"For what?" Captain Tucker asked, puzzled. + +"Hair." + +Joe, conscious only of the stale stench of the room, marveled that his +uncle could detect the smell of soap. He poked into the corners. Petey, +lounging in the doorway, watched the search narrowly. + +"What's this bird been pulling, Cap?" + +"Kidnaping," Captain Tucker threw at him. + +Petey went white. "So help me, Cap. I'm out of it. You ain't got a thing +on me. Take my oath. I ain't touching nothing like that. Who'd he +snatch?" + +There was no answer. Lady, pawing, had brought a ball of paper out from +under the bureau. Captain Tucker opened the wad. + +"Hair," he said. + +"There's blood, too," Joe cried. + +The blind man whistled soundlessly. "A shaved off mustache and a cut +lip." + +"Tried a disguise and marked himself." Captain Tucker bolted for the +door. They pushed past the alarmed, agitated Petey and left him crying +after them. + +At the railroad station a strange agent, a relief for the regular man, +came to the ticket window. + +"Did you sell a ticket late this afternoon or this evening to a man with +a cut lip?" Captain Tucker barked the question. + +"Why, yes." The agent spoke with a slow, maddening drawl. "Short, dark +fellow. Couldn't help noticing that lip. Looked as though----" + +"How many tickets did he buy?" + +"Why, if I recollect, he bought one. Yes; one ticket." + +"Where to?" + +"Peekskill. Yes; I remember that. Just happens that I have a married +daughter in Peek----" + +Captain Tucker frothed. "Never mind your family. This is important. What +train did he take?" + +The agent was galvanized into more rapid speech. "The 6:29." + +"Did you see him get on?" + +"Yes. Yes; I did. I happened to be looking out the window----" + +"Did he get on alone or did he have someone with him. Quick!" + +"He got on alone." + +No flicker of change showed in Dr. Stone's face, but Captain Tucker was +staggered. Joe was suddenly wan and bleak. Had they followed the trail +this far only to have it fail them. And then, abruptly, the police +captain was pounding the grille of the ticket-window with a huge fist. + +"What time does that train make Peekskill? In twelve minutes? Get that +key working. I want that man with the cut lip held. If he doesn't get off +the train have it searched. Give me that telephone." + +The captain called Peekskill police. Presently they were out on the +platform and he took off his cap and fanned his face. Green signal lights +blinked out of the darkness down the right of way. + +"Doctor, what did he do with the boy?" + +"Perhaps he did nothing," the doctor said quietly. + +Joe stiffened with new hope. That tone of his uncle's--? But the captain, +brooding, was lost in his own thoughts. + +"There's a slant to this I don't understand," he said slowly. "That boy +was kidnaped in broad daylight. Snapped out of his own yard. How could a +stranger have brought him through a village where he was known? How could +he have been taken past his own house out to the road?" + +"I have been thinking about that," Dr. Stone admitted. The blind face was +again intent. "Suppose we go back to the house." + +Mr. Foster hurried toward them with pathetic haste. "Any news?" + +"The organ-grinder left for Peekskill on the 6:29," Captain Tucker told +him. "I've telephoned and wired. They'll pick him up when the train gets +there." + +"Was Billy with him?" + +The captain made a merciful answer. "I'm not sure." + +Ira Close came across the yard through the moonlight. "You want me to +pick up those pieces of plate, Mr. Foster?" + +"I'll take care of them, Ira. I--I don't want Mrs. Foster to see them." + +"Have you his cap?" Dr. Stone asked with that same understanding +gentleness. "I don't believe he was ever taken out to the road. Now, +Tucker, if you'll lead me to where the plate was dropped--. Lady, +forward." + +Joe could feel Ira Close beside him rubbing the injured hand as though it +pained, but his eyes were on the man walking beside the dog. They came to +the shattered pieces of crockery. The doctor held the cap to the dog's +nose. + +"Lady, find," he said quietly. + +Joe trembled. What now? Nose to the ground, the great, tawny dog sniffed +for the scent. And then it moved, not toward the road but off to the left +toward a grove of apple trees. The blind man pulled on the leash and the +dog stopped. + +"What lies ahead, Foster?" + +"The orchard, the barn where Ira has a room in the loft, the chicken +runs, the cow shed, and Billy's rabbits." + +Captain Tucker exploded. "Doctor, this is getting nowhere. The boy may +have gone to the rabbits. That's the trail you may be following this +minute." + +In the moonlight the sightless eyes were calm. "Aren't you forgetting the +broken plate, Captain? He started out with feed. Why should he go on +without it?" + +Beside him Joe Morrow could feel the hired man still rubbing the hand and +hear the soft scraping of flesh along the bandage. The doctor appeared to +listen to something in the night. + +"Are you going on?" Mr. Foster cried. + +"Tomorrow," the blind man said with that same gentleness. "The night +offers obstacles. We might miss something we should see." + +"But to wait--to wait--" The voice broke. + +"We wouldn't hold you in suspense a moment longer than necessary. +Tomorrow, at daybreak. Have you the cap, Joe? Don't lose it." + +Ira rumbled a heavy "good-night" and passed from the moonlight into the +shadow of the orchard. A woman's voice called: "Pa! Pa! Captain Tucker's +wanted on the telephone." The captain hurried toward the house. Dr. Stone +spoke softly: + +"Ira's been with you a long time, Foster?" + +"Nine years. Surly, but a good worker. A bit gruffer than usual tonight. +Billy was always a little afraid of him; that's probably on his mind. And +then this shooting and the loss of his money." + +"Money?" + +"Three hundred dollars. He drew it out yesterday to send to his sister +and carried it in a hip pocket. That's the pocket in which the +organ-grinder put the note. The money's gone." + +The blind man's head was thrown back; Joe saw the lips strained and tight +once more. Captain Tucker came out of the house, slowly. + +"Bad news," he blurted. "Our man fooled us. Wasn't on the train; slipped +off at one of the way stations." + +Mr. Foster swayed unsteadily. "Don't," he begged hoarsely, "tell Billy's +mother." + +The policeman walked down the driveway with the doctor. "That Italian may +have left the train a station or two out, and come back for the boy. I've +ordered every road out of the village guarded." + +Joe came away with a choking lump in his throat. The blind man, holding +the harness and walking close to the dog, whistled an almost soundless +whistle. The boy knew, by this sign, that the brain behind the sightless +eyes had caught a glimmer of light. + +Suddenly, without warning, the apple-scented peace of the night was +broken by a flash and a roar. A whistling whine filled the air. + +"Drop!" Dr. Stone cried. + +Not until he lay prone in the road did the boy grasp the significance of +flash and roar. Somebody had fired on them from ambush. A shuddering +chill ran up his spine, and sweat stood out upon his forehead. The +moon-splashed world was silent again, and faintly to his nostrils came +the drift of burnt powder. + +Dr. Stone stood up. "Another shot," he called clearly, "and I'll send the +dog to tear you down. Come, Joe." + +Quaking, Joe stood up. They moved ahead again, and the boy's nerves were +torture-tight as he waited for another flash and roar. But the silence +remained unbroken and they came at last to the welcome protection of +home. + +The boy's voice trembled. "Why did the organ-grinder come back and shoot +at us?" + +"That bullet," Dr. Stone said grimly, "was intended for Lady, not for +us." His hand fell upon the dog's head. "Old girl, somebody's afraid you +know too much." + +In the chill dark of the following morning the boy and the man gulped hot +coffee in the kitchen. Arising from the table Dr. Stone walked to a desk +in the hall, took out a small first-aid kit, and slipped it into a +pocket. Then man, boy and dog were out in the road, when the first golden +streak was faint in the eastern sky. + +Captain Tucker's car stood in the driveway. Mr. Foster looked as though +he had not slept. Ira Close, his right hand wrapped in a handkerchief, +went about small chores. + +Dr. Stone said: "Could Ira get Lady a drink, Foster?" + +Ira brought water in a pan. The blind man, shifting the leash, stumbled +against the dog and tottered. Joe, with a cry of alarm, sprang forward. +But the doctor's arms, outstretched, had gone around the hired man; they +slipped along the stout body, down, down--. He caught himself and stood +erect. Ira Close swore morosely and swung an arm. + +"That finger?" Dr. Stone asked, concerned. "I warned you. Why didn't you +have a doctor see it?" + +"I fixed it myself." + +"Nonsense. Here; give it to me." + +After a moment of hesitation the hand was held out. Joe watched his +uncle's fingers move as though they had eyes. The tweezers came out of +the kit. Abruptly the doctor's body was between him and the throbbing +wound. + +"Fever in here," the blind man said; "infected." Ira Close cried aloud. +Joe glimpsed a corner of his uncle's face, intent, strained; then there +was the drip of iodine, and Dr. Stone stepped back. The blind eyes were +bland and serene. + +"Have Mrs. Foster bandage it," he said. + +Ira went into the house. The kitchen door slammed shut, and immediately +tranquility left the doctor. + +"Tucker, stay here. Joe, this way. A few minutes, Foster; just a few +minutes." + +Back where the broken plate had lain yesterday, Dr. Stone unhooked the +leash and gave the dog the scent of the cap. + +"Lady, find," he urged. The tawny dog, as though puzzled by the absence +of the leash, looked up inquiringly. "Find," the man said again. + +Lady, nose down, padded toward the orchard. + +"Take me back, Joe." + +The boy had the feeling that they hung in air. Ira Close came out of the +house with a finger freshly bandaged. Captain Tucker gave an exclamation +of surprise. + +"Doctor! Where's the dog?" + +Lady made her own answer. From some place in the near distance they heard +her deep-toned, full-throated, insistent bark. + +"Foster," Dr. Stone said quietly, "I think Lady has found your boy." + +Two men began to run--Foster toward the orchard, Ira Close toward the +road. To Joe Morrow the world whirled and spun. Dr. Stone cried, "Look +out, Tucker; he has a gun." The policeman leaped, and the hired man went +down. With amazing quickness brawny arms turned Ira over, and the first +shaft of sunlight glinted on a blue barrel. + +"See if there are two exploded cartridges," the doctor called. + +Captain Tucker broke the gun. "Two," he said. "What does this mean, +Doctor?" + +"It means you have your kidnaper." + +And so it came that Ira Close, snarling and venomous, sat handcuffed in +Captain Tucker's police car. + +"Where's the boy, Doctor?" + +"In the barn, most likely. Not a bad idea, was it? Snatch the boy and +hide him away three hundred feet from his home. Who'd think of looking +for him there? Why should anybody look for him there when the hue and cry +had gone out for an organ-grinder who had disappeared after trying to +disguise himself? + +"Why did Ira do it? You'll have to ask him. The papers have been full of +kidnapings and ransoms. Probably, with a greed for money, he'd been +turning the thing in his mind for a long time. Then came the +organ-grinder, and that brought inspiration. But there was one point, +Tucker, you failed to take into account, and that was why I was not +surprised to learn the Italian had boarded the train alone. A man, +fleeing after a crime, does not shave off his mustache and leave the +clipped hairs behind him to advertise his disguise. + +"Ira snapped Billy up yesterday afternoon. The boy had never liked him; +there was a momentary struggle. The signs of it lay upon the ground. +Probably he hid the boy in the barn loft and gagged him. With the coming +of night there was alarm in the Foster home. 'Ira, go see if you can find +Billy!' He had anticipated that command. And so he went forth, and +managed to run a noose up his arms, and came back with the note and a +cock-and-bull story. He was loosely tied. Did you ever see a captive who +was not tied tightly? For this Italian to tie Ira, a taller man, he would +have to put away his gun. Can you picture 185-pound Ira allowing a +135-pound stripling, no longer flourishing a pistol, to wind him with a +rope? It didn't hold together. + +"Nor was that the only point where the story didn't hold together. Ira +made positive identification of the organ-grinder. He identified him +through a foreign accent. But he said nothing of a previous meeting until +Joe told of seeing them in conversation. Where had that conversation been +held? Outside the bank. Not significant in itself, but strikingly +significant when we find Ira suddenly announcing to Foster that he had +drawn three hundred dollars from the bank to send to his sister and that +it had been stolen from his pocket. + +"What's your guess about that three hundred dollars, Tucker? Mine is that +it went to the organ-grinder. The Italian is guilty of no wrong. All he +knows is that a stranger offered him three hundred dollars to shave off +his mustache, abandon his organ and monkey, disappear quietly and leave +the train before reaching the station for which he had purchased a +ticket. Why did Ira tell us about the three hundred dollars? What's your +guess, Tucker? Mine is that he was suddenly touched with a cold fear. The +withdrawal of the money was a matter of record at the bank. The money was +taken out the day of the kidnaping, the day of the organ-grinder's +disappearance. These facts might have given rise to a few unpleasant +questions." + +Joe, breathless, looked at Captain Tucker. The policeman frowned +doubtfully. + +"How about that shot in the finger, Doctor? Do you mean he shot himself?" + +"What's your guess?" Dr. Stone asked mildly. "Mine is that, when he was +sent out to look for Billy, he fired a shot in the air as an +after-thought. Do you remember, when we got there, that his hand pained? +He kept rubbing it as though it throbbed. Infection doesn't set in so +quickly, Captain; there must be a period of incubation. He had cut that +finger earlier in the day. He objected to going to a doctor even after I +warned him of lock-jaw. Why? Because he didn't fear the lock-jaw that may +follow a gun-shot wound. Because he knew that no doctor would look at +that wound and believe it came from a bullet. Of course, he let me handle +it; but, then, I am blind. He figured I didn't count. My guess is that, +in running the rope over his arms, he reopened a wound he had received +earlier in the day." + +"By the Eternal," Captain Tucker burst out, "this seems to be nothing but +guesses. You guess this and you guess that. How about a few facts. We +have placed this man in irons. If Billy isn't found you and I may +discover ourselves in a sweet peck of trouble." + +A voice called from the house: "Captain Tucker! Telephone." + +The captain mounted the porch steps. The doctor, fishing out his pipe, +methodically stuffed it with tobacco. + +"I can't understand," he said musingly, "why you didn't light out last +night, Ira, after trying to shoot Lady. Afraid to run and lose five +thousand dollars, and afraid to stay and be caught. You were in one sweet +peck of trouble, weren't you, Ira?" Ira said nothing. + +"How were you going to work it? Collect the money and then get word to +them where to find the boy?" + +The hired man glared in impotent fury. + +Captain Tucker, looking slightly dazed, came back to the car. "They +picked up our Italian in a small village fifteen miles above Peekskill." + +"Search him, Captain?" + +"Of course." + +"Did they," the doctor asked mildly, "find three hundred dollars in his +pocket?" + +"Three hundred dollars to the penny in one roll." The captain fanned his +face with his uniform cap. Abruptly the motion of the cap stopped. "Look +here, Doctor; you said you found the first clew in that injured hand." + +"The first clew and the last," the doctor told him. + +"The last? Did you find something else when you dressed that finger a +little while ago?" + +The blind man puffed serenely on the pipe. "I found a nasty cut and +something foreign imbedded in the cut. It had set up the infection; I +could feel it under the pressure of my fingers. I took it out with the +tweezers. Something hard and gritty, Captain. I haven't seen it; it's +safely stowed away in my pocket. But I'll stake my soul it's a chipped +splinter from a broken blue plate." + +At that moment Joe Morrow saw Lady and Mr. Foster emerge from the +orchard, and the man carried a small boy in his arms. + + + + + * * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +--The copyright notice from the printed edition was preserved, + although this book is in the public domain in the country of + publication. + +--Typographical errors were corrected without comment. + +--Nonstandard spellings and dialect were not changed. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DETECTIVES, INC.*** + + +******* This file should be named 44249.txt or 44249.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/4/2/4/44249 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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