and he's resisting extradition? Say, I wish I could go fishing!" and
the colonel shook his head in dogged impatience at the tangle into
which the affair had snarled itself.

"Spotty must have robbed the jewelry store in spite of what he says
about it," mused the Colonel. "But if he did, and got the cross, even
if he didn't kill Mrs. Darcy, how in the world could he get the cross
back to her when the police took it away from him and when the last I
saw of it it was in the police headquarters safe?

"This certainly gets me! Oh Shag! is that you?" called the colonel as
he heard some one moving out in the hall near his door.

"Yes, sah, Colonel!"

"You stay here until I come back. I'm going out, and I don't know what
time I'll be in. Be careful to get straight any messages that come in
over the wire, and if Jack Young calls up get the 'phone number of the
place where he is so I can call him."

"Yes, sah, Colonel."

"And, Shag!"

"Yes, sah, Colonel!"

"Hand me that little green book. I may have to be up all night, and I
want something to read that will keep me awake," and the colonel
slipped into his coat pocket the green volume. He was taking his
fishing by a sort of "correspondence school method" it will be observed.

The detective busied himself about his apartment getting ready to go
out, and from a suitcase which was closed with a complicated lock he
took a number of articles which he stowed away in various pockets of
his garments.

"Is yo' gwine be out all night, Colonel?" asked Shag.

"I can't say. I'm going to do a bit of shadow work and it may take me
until sunrise. But you stay right here."

"Yes, sah, Colonel. I will."

"And now we'll see, Mr. Aaron Grafton," said the detective to himself,
as he prepared to leave, "whether you're telling the truth or not. I
think my one best bet is to follow you when you go to see Miss Cynthia!"

But before the colonel could leave the room there sounded the insistent
ringing of his telephone bell.

"I wonder if that can be Kettridge," he mused. "And yet he wouldn't
know that I had called him. Answer it, Shag," he directed. "It may be
some one I don't care to talk to now. Don't say I'm here until you
find out who it is."

"Yes, sah, Colonel!"

The colored servant unhooked the receiver and listened a moment. Then,
carefully covering the mouthpiece with his hand, he announced:

"It's Mr. Young, Colonel!"

"Is it! Good! Hold him! I'll talk with him!"

Quickly crossing the room the detective spoke rapidly into the
instrument.

"Hello, Jack! This is the colonel. Yes--what is it? He is? That's
unusual--for him. Guess he's going down and out by the wrong route!
Yes, I'll come right away! You follow King and I'll take the trail
after Larch. So he's boasting that-- Well, all sorts of things may
happen now. Yes, I'm on my way now. You follow King!"

The detective remained motionless for a few seconds after he had
slipped the receiver into its hook. Then he said to Shag:

"Do you know where I ought to be now?"

The colored man paused a moment before replying. Then he played a
safety shot by answering:

"No, sah, Colonel, I jest doesn't--zactly."

"Well, I ought to be getting ready to go fishing. I'm sick of this
whole business. I'm going to quit! I never ought to have gone into
it. I'm too old. I told 'em that, but they wouldn't believe me."

"Too old to go _fishin'_, sah, Colonel? No sah! You'll never be dat!
Never!"

"Oh, I don't mean fishing, Shag! I mean I never ought to have been
mixed up with this affair--this detective business. I'm going to quit
now, Shag!"

"Yes, sah, Colonel!"

"Get me Kedge on the long distance."

"Mr. Kedge, in N' York, sah?"



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