"But he hadn't any more to do with it, Colonel, than that cat!" and
Carroll pointed to the headquarters cat which was sleeping near a
radiator, for the day had turned cold and steam was on in the place.

"Perhaps not," admitted Colonel Ashley. "But there are some peculiar
coincidences and, if you don't mind, I'd like to see what I can find
out about them."

"Go as far as you like, Colonel," returned Thong, needlessly generous.
"We've got our man, and that's all we want. The other isn't our case.
Oh, Donovan!" he called, as he saw a fellow sleuth passing through an
outer room. "Here's some one to see you," and the presentation was
quickly and informally made. The two men had seen each other before,
but had not spoken.

"Glad to know you, Colonel Ashley," said Donovan. "I've read a lot
about you. You're on the Darcy case, they tell me."

"In a way, yes. I'm working in the interests of the young man. But I
hear you have another murder."

"Yes, but it's so plain there's no interest in it for you. All we want
to do--Pinkus and me--is to lay our hands on the Dago that done it and
got away. We'll get him, too, before many days. He's the kind of a
feller that can't hide very well, unless he goes and kills himself, and
he may do that."

"How did it happen? And is there any truth in the newspaper story
about the same watch that was found in Mrs. Darcy's hand being found in
the hand of the dead man?"

"Yes, that part's true enough, but that's all there is to it. It's
just one of them coincidences like. Singa Phut got back his watch
after the prosecutor decided he didn't need it for evidence. There
wasn't nothing that Singa had to do with the Darcy case anyhow, and he
seemed awful anxious to get back that watch. So it was turned over to
him."

"But did he really kill his partner?"

"Surest thing you know. Busted his head in with a heavy
candlestick--one of a pair. I've got 'em here, look," and, opening a
closet where he temporarily kept his collection of evidence, Donovan
took out a pair of heavy bronze candlesticks, in the form of hooded
cobras.

"That's the one that did the business," said the headquarters
detective, showing one candlestick with something dark and unpleasant
on the heavier end.

"Gad!" exclaimed the colonel. "The very pair I was going to buy!"

"What! You buy?" cried Donovan. "Look here, Colonel! do you know
anything about this?" and the detective's professional instincts got
the upper hand of his friendliness.

"Not the least in the world--not as much as you do," was the cool
answer. "I happened to see those candlesticks in the window of Singa
Phut's shop the other day, and I made up my mind to buy them when I had
a chance. Now, I'm afraid I won't. But how did it happen?"

"Oh, well, there isn't much of a story to it," and Donovan's voice
showed his disappointment. "Phut--I don't know whether that's his
first or his last name--anyhow, he had a partner named Shere Ali. No
one knows much about Ali, for he came here just recently. Anyhow, he
and Phut didn't get along very well it seems.

"Neighbors often heard 'em scrappin' a lot, and this afternoon they
went at it again hot and heavy. Then things quieted down, and nobody
heard anything more. Toward dark a man went in to buy a lamp. He
found the place without a light in it, stumbled over something on the
floor, and there was Ali's body, with the head busted in and this heavy
candlestick near it.

"He raised the howl right off, and Pinkus and I got there as soon as we
could. Of course Phut was gone. But we'll get him!"

"Then you think he did it?"

"Sure he did! Who else?"

"And the watch was in Ali's hand?"

"Sure! Held so tight we could hardly get it out. In fact it was so
tight that he's cut his palm grabbin' hold of it. Maybe the fight was
about who owned the watch, for the Dagos talked in their foreign lingo
and none of the neighbors could tell what they were sayin'."

"I see. And the watch? Have you it?"

"Yes, it's here. Going yet, too. Hear it tick?" and Donovan held open
the door of his closet. From the place, in which hung odd coats, caps
and other garments, and from the shelf on which was a collection of
gruesome weapons, came an insistent ticking.

"That's the watch," announced the headquarters detective, reaching in
for it. "Going yet--see?" and he held it out to Colonel Ashley.

Somewhat to the surprise of Donovan the military detective accepted the
timepiece on his open palm, and so gingerly that it caused Donovan to


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