CHAPTER XVIII

AMY'S TEST

However it was not quite as bad as that, though Sallie Page had
received a severe shock, and had been near to death. Prompt action on
the part of the physician on the hospital ambulance had started her
feeble heart, which had been affected by the current of electricity, to
beating.

This, among other things, Colonel Ashley learned when he hastened to
the jewelry store from the Homestead, leaving at the latter place his
trusty lieutenant, Jack Young, to look after both Larch and Harry King,
neither of whom seemed likely to leave the place very soon.

"Tell me more about it," said the colonel, when he was sitting with Mr.
Kettridge in the dimly-lighted jewelry shop after Sallie had been taken
to the hospital. "What shocked her?"

"The same electric wires on the showcase that shocked Miss Brill the
other day. The electricians had been told to remove them, but had not
yet done so."

"But I thought those wires were dead--cut--after the other accident,
Mr. Kettridge."

"So they were. But they can be supplied with current from another
source, it seems, and I was the innocent cause of doing it."

"You! How?"

"By throwing over a switch on the work bench where James Darcy used to
busy himself!"

"An electric switch on Darcy's work bench?"

"Yes, come and see for yourself. I've sent for the electrician to come
and rip out everything. I'll have the place all wired over. It was a
makeshift job to begin with, and since Darcy complicated the wires with
some that he hoped to run his electric lathe with, there is no telling
when one may get a shock."

"How did it happen?" asked the colonel, as the jeweler led the way to
that part of the store where Darcy had the repair bench, behind the
watch showcase. It was now close to midnight, and the excitement over
the accident to Sallie, which had occurred after the closing hour for
the store, had subsided, not as much of a crowd having gathered at that
time of the evening as would have done earlier.

"Well, it happened this way," explained Kettridge. "We're going to
have a special sale of a medium-priced line of goods to-morrow. I was
getting ready for it after the clerks had gone--setting out the display
and the like--when I found I needed help.

"It wasn't much--just the little odds and ends that a woman can do
better than a man when it comes to making things look fancy. I might
have telephoned for Miss Brill, but I didn't like to bring her back, as
she'd worked hard all day.

"Then I thought of Sallie Page. It's true she's deaf, but she has been
in the family, so to speak, a long while, and she knows the shop and
the goods pretty well. She's quick if she is old, so I got her down
about nine o'clock and we started in."

"Then exactly how it happened I don't know. I was puttering around the
work table where Darcy used to do his jewel setting and his repair
work, and Sallie was over near the showcase. I wanted more light on a
certain piece of jewelry I had in my hand, and I thoughtlessly threw
over a switch I saw on Darcy's table. It was a switch I hadn't noticed
before--in fact, I accidentally uncovered it by moving a collection of
his tools I hadn't previously disturbed.

"No sooner had I closed the circuit than I heard a scream from Sallie
and saw her fall backwards. I had given her a shock without knowing
it."

"That was queer," murmured the colonel. "Let me have a look at that
switch."

"And, while you're about it, I'll look too," said another voice in the
dimly-lighted store, and, as the two turned in startled surprise, they
saw Detective Carroll smiling at them.

"I heard there was another accident up here," he went on, still
smiling, "so I came to have a look. The side door was open and I
walked in. Guess you didn't hear me. These rubber heels don't make
much noise."

"They don't, indeed, when you walk on them and not on the soles,"
observed the colonel grimly. "The question is, what do you want to
see?"

"The electric switch on Darcy's table," was the answer. "I couldn't
help hearing what you said, Mr. Kettridge," said Carroll, "and I don't
know as I would have tried not to if I could. This is important. I
rather guess it makes it look a bit bad for your friend, Colonel
Ashley," and there was a sneer in the words.



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