"I see. In the left hand. This is the hand in which the ticking watch
was found, was it not?"

"I believe so. The watch belonging to an Indian named Singa Phut. By
the way what became of him?" the doctor asked of Detective Carroll, who
had strolled out of the detectives' private room and was listening to
the conversation.

"Oh, that gink? He made a big howl about getting back his watch, and
as he had a perfectly good _alibi_, and we could fasten nothing on him,
we give it back to him and told him to beat it. He did, I guess."

"No, he is still in town," said Colonel Ashley. "I passed his place a
while ago. He has a pair of beautiful Benares candlesticks, in the
form of hooded cobra snakes, that I want to get. Singa Phut is still
in town."

"Does that answer all your questions, Colonel?" inquired Dr. Warren.
"I'll tell you all I can, in reason, but if--"

"Thank you! You've told me all I cared to know. I have some theories
I want to work on, and I'm not sure how they'll turn out."

"I s'pose you think Darcy didn't do this job," cut in Carroll, rather
sneeringly.

"I'm positive he didn't, sir!" and the colonel drew himself up and
looked uncompromisingly at the headquarters detective. "If I thought
he had done it, I would not be associated with his case."

"You're going to have a sweet job proving he didn't do it," laughed the
officer.

"Maybe," assented the colonel unruffled.

"Who else could have croaked her?" pursued Carroll. "Here he goes and
has a quarrel with the old lady just before he goes to bed. He's sore
at her because he thinks she's keeping back part of his coin. Then
he's sore because she made some cracks about his girl--that's enough to
get any man riled. I don't blame Darcy for going off his nut. But he
shouldn't have croaked the old lady. He done it all right, and we got
the goods on him! You'll see!"

"Well, it's your business, of course--yours and that of the
prosecutor--to prove him guilty," said the colonel. "And you can't
quarrel with me if I try to prove him innocent."

"Sure not, Colonel. Every man's got to earn his bread and butter
somehow. Only I hate to see you kid yourself along believing this guy
didn't do the job. He done it, I tell you!"

"Maybe," half assented the colonel. "Thank you, Dr. Warren. We shall
meet again," and, with a military salute, the colonel went out of
police headquarters. As he descended the steps he silently mused:

"I wonder what Carroll and Thong would say if they knew about the
diamond cross, and heard that Spotty Morgan had it? I guess they would
change some of their theories then. Which reminds me that I have more
irons in the fire than I suspected. I must not lose sight of Cynthia.
She will be getting anxious about her diamonds, and I would like to see
what she says when she hears the truth."

Though Colonel Ashley had given up all hopes of having a use for his
beloved fishing rods and flies, at least on this trip to Colchester, he
did not give up his perusal of Walton's book.

It was one evening while sitting in his room at the hotel, idly turning
over the pages, hardly able to concentrate his mind on what he read for
much thinking of the diamond cross mystery, that his eye chanced on
page 170, where he saw the passage:

"There be also three or four other little fish that I had almost
forgot, that are all without scales--"

The book dropped from the detective's hand.

"Gad!" he exclaimed. "That's what I've been forgetting--the _little_
fish. I must get after some of them. They may turn the scale in our
favor. Little fish! That's it. Small fry, when you can't get big
ones! I wonder--"

There was a knock at the door and Shag entered, bowing and saluting
military style at the same time.

"Scuse me, Colonel, sah," he began, "but does yo' want t' heah any
news?"

"Any news, Shag? What sort? Come, speak up, you rascal!"

"Well, sah, Colonel, yo' done tell me, when we come heah, not t'
trouble yo' wif any detective news, but--"

"Oh, that was before I got mixed up in this Darcy case, Shag. The
prohibition is off, so to speak. If you have any news--"

"No, sah, Colonel, 'tisn't 'bout po' ole Miss Darcy--leastways not
_much_ about her. But dere's been annudder murder in town."

"Another murder?"



<< previous page | next page >>

Jump to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 |