Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 2 — page 155: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

HOW MANY CARDS? “ Here comes Martin; are you going to leave him to watch the place?” “ There’s a blank wall that surrounds ‘the yard space at the rear like a well wi’h never a door nor an opening that a man could crawl through as far as I could see this morning, but I’m taking no chances,” McCarty responded. ‘‘ The houses on both sides of the Crevelings are closed, but there might be a way he could get out, at that. Martin!’’ he added as the detective from headquarters approached. “Go back a couple of blocks, cross the avenue and climb over the park wall; creep along the other side of it till you are just opposite the Creveling house—’tis that white one there in the middle of the next block—and watch both doors. You got a good look at Hill?” “Sure; down at headquarters to-day, when the chief was hauling him over the coals,” Martin replied. ‘“ Me and Yost both give him the once-over. He ain’t ever ‘been mugged, I could swear to that.” “ Well, keep your eyes peeled and if he comes out again ‘give a squeeze to this and then trail him.” From beneath his coat McCarty produced an object not unlike a small motor-horn and handeg it to the other. ‘If he don’t come out stay where youll be till you hear two quick honks of a horn like that one, or we join you, if it’s morning. Understand?” “ Right, Mac.” Martin grinned at Den- ny. “The chief thought your side-kick here would be with you. I could tell a mile off, Riordan, that you were on the job!”’ He walked off chuckling at Dennis’s dis- comfiture, and McCarty remarked consol- ingly: | “ Never you mind, Denny, every man t his work and it’s your own line you'll be following to-night.”’ : | “My oyn line?” Dennis repeated. “Yow’re not thinking of starting 3 fire, are you, Mac?” “No, but there may be a bit of wall- . scaling to be done and you're the lad for it. °Tis a hard place to reach, though, and I’ve no mind to be nabbed by pig- headed householders for breaking and en- tering. Clancy ought to happen along spon ‘on his beat and we'll wait for him.” 10 A | (337 “ But why would this fellow Hill go back to the house first if he’s got something else on his mind?” Dennis ‘was disposed to argument. ‘“ There’s little Creveling needs of a valet now.” ‘“ For an alibi; he'll not be caught again without one,” McCarty replied. “ It was a woman’s voice, you know, that telephoned out to the Waverly country place, and I’m thinking that ’tis maybe because of a wo- man that Hill won’t open his mouth about where he was last night.” “Tt might not be the same woman, though,” Dennis suggested helpfully. “ Perhaps the woman that phoned was put up to it by the man that killed Creveling.”’ “The one that killed Creveling put no- body else up to doing any of the dirty _work, Denny,” McCarty said after a pause. “Twas a lone hand that was played last night; the hand that held the pistol. Who- ever did the phoning found out about it somehow, and was playing a different game. There’s Clancy, now, coming out of that area-way and wiping the mouth of him on the back of his hand! The force is not what it used to be when I was pounding my beat!” | ‘““How’re they coming, boys?” Clancy greeted them with a cheerful grin. “Thought you’d be somewhere around, Mac, and I might have known Riordan _ would be with you. I know as well as you do that ‘twas ng suicide last night, but I’m glad the inspector took it out of my hands; it Tl be a hard nut to crack!” “We've been waiting for you, Clancy.” . McCarty spoke without preamble. ‘“‘ From what we observed just now you seem to be on good terms with the help in the houses along here; couldn’t you get the cook in one of those on the next block to let us go through and into their back yard? We'll probably be wanting to come out the same way along about morning, but if we don’t there’ll be nothing to kick up a racket about. It ‘ll be just as well, thougt, if you pick out one that don’t know the ser- vants at the Crevelings.” “Sure, that’s easy!” Clancy exclaimed. “ Getting you through, I mean. As to keep- ing it from the help at the Crevelings, the cook at the De Forests, two doors away, ECOMNIC HOG Ss COlini