Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 2 — page 157: what you’re looking at

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

HOW MANY CARDS? “Do you see no sign of an opening?” ‘‘ There’s a back door to the house, but it’s closed tight.”” Dennis leaned over and craned his neck downward. “ If it’s in the wall you mean, there’s not so much as a loase brick. Is that all you wanted to know?” He prepared to descend, but McCarty halted him. “Not by a long shot, it isn’t! You'll stay where you are, Denny, my lad, until something happens or we're sure that it won’t, and you’ best be making yourself comfortable, for it’s likely there'll be a Jong wait ahead of you. ‘Tis barely nine o’clock now.” , CHAPTER XXII. BOLTED DOORS. ND a long wait it proved to be. Den- nis shifted about from time to time, but stuck faithfully at his post, and McCarty paced back and forth upon the narrow strip of sod which lined the fence. An hour passed, then another, and the lights in the rear of the neighboring houses began to go out, one by one, but still there came no muffled honk from the horn which McCarty had given to Martin and no sign from the watcher above that might tend to alleviate the long wait. ' The back of the Creveling house had long since been dark and no sound issued from it. McCarty began to feel an inward mis- giving.’ Had his train of reasoning been at fault? There was so much to be done, s0 many loose threads to be gathered up m this strange tangle of events. Was he wasting precious time? Had he allowed himself to be turned aside from the main issue by the chance hint of a gossiping servant while the real slayer of Eugene Creveling escaped? He told himself miserably that he should have had them watched, the whole lot of them! Mrs. Waverly and Mrs. Creveling were out of it, and the O’Rourkes were not even to be considered, but any- thing could be expected from the rest of them! Even that alibi of the Fords might have been cooked up between them and 389 Cutter, though what common interest they all Pad in blocking the investigation— ‘“ Whisht!” <A sibilant command from Dennis broke in upon McCarty’s pessimis- tic meditation and brought him up stand- ing. ‘‘ There’s a light just flashed up for a minute in the third-floor window nearest the farther wall! ~ You’d have seen it yourself if you’d not been sleep-walking! Look up! There it is again!” McCarty was already straining his eyes up into the darkness and now he saw a tiny pin-point of light gleam out over the wall from the direction of the window in- dicated, sweep across space like a streak of distant lightning and vanish. “ Pocket electric torch!” he ejaculated softly, prancing in the sudden excitement of renewed hope. ‘‘ What’s going on, Den- ny? I can’t see through a brick wall—” ‘For the love of God, step your haver- ing!” came from above in a fierce, far-car- rying whisper, and McCarty subsided, men- tally cursing the increasing girth and lack of physical practise which prevented him from reaching the point ‘of vantage held by his companion. He had not long to remain in suspense, however, for almost immediate- ly the silence of the night was broken by the sound of a window being stealthily raised. Dennis gesticulated violently and then shrank back inte the concealment of the overhanging lintel while McCarty gazed breathlessly but impotently upward. There came a curious scratching noise which seemed to be receding; the light flashed again fainter than before and then the sound of a soft thud. In an instant Dennis’s long arms and legs writhed out of the shadows and he scrambled down with perilous haste to land at McCarty’s feet. ““Seme one—a man—got out of that window, straddled the wall and climbed down the back of that next house!” he ex- Claimed. ‘ He'll be off across fences to the next street north and we'll lose him!” “ Like bell we will!” the despised ladder and, setting it against the fence of the De Forests’ yard, he swarmed up it and, hanging by his hands, dropped with a grunt to the ground. Den- nis was after him in a twinkling and they ECOMNIC HOG McCarty seized Ss COlini