Adventure Magazine Cover, October 1911 — page 105: what you’re looking at

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

The Detective concernedly. ‘His professed lack of knowl- edge of firearms was rather entertaining under the circumstances.” ‘Why did you let him go?” exploded the General. ‘‘We shall never see him again.” Vokes looked at his watch. “How long will it take him to reach the Manor?”’ he asked. “About ten minutes.” “Then, allowing him five minutes to get the pistol, he should be back in twenty-five minutes. If I were a betting man, General, I would venture a considerable wager that we see him here within the half-hour. In the meantime there is something which I wish to find, and with your permission, while we are waiting, I will make a search.” Iil AND a very thorough search it was. The General and I, after offering our services, which were declined, seated ourselves at the foot of a tree and watched the detective “ beating ” the ground. Starting from the small tree where the body had lain, he moved into the wood on a line at an angle of about forty-five degrees with that formed by the tree and the spot in the marsh where the pistol was found. He walked slowly, closely scanning the ground on ecither side of him and the branches overhead. Having reached the edge of the swamp he paused a few mo- ments, glancing over its surface, and then returned along a line a few yards to the south, with the same care and deliberation. ““What the is he looking for?” said the General, rather testily. “Is he doing it for effect?” “T have known Anson Vokes for some years,” I replied, “and I never yet knew him to pose. Depend upon it, he has some object in view. See! He is picking up something!” Vokes had turned slightly from his course and, stooping, raised some object from the ground. He glanced at it for a second and then, thrusting it into his pocket, came straight to where we sat. ““Well?”’? queried the General. ‘Have you found what you were looking for?” Vokes inclined his head in the affirmative. ‘Ts it what you expected to find?” ‘‘Assuredly,”’ replied Vokes. ‘“‘It is the one thing missing, which I spoke of just now.” for the Defense IO5I “Is there any objection to your friend and me seeing this missing link?’’ demanded the General with a touch of hauteur. “Not the slightest,’ was the reply. Vokes drew from his pocket the object he had picked up and laid it in the General’s outstretched hand. It consisted of two cords, each about eighteen inches long and about half .the thickness of a man’s little finger, fastened together with a reef-knot. The General stared at it in a mystified fashion. ‘““Do you mean to say,” he asked incred- ulously, “‘that this is what you were looking for, and that you expected to find it?” “I certainly expected to do so,” replied Vokes, ‘‘unless some person had picked it up and, not knowing its importance, had carried it away, which was rather unlikely.” ‘And now that you have found it,”’ said General Warbury, ‘‘would you mind telling me what bearing it has on the case? Two bits of string tied together do not convey a very important clue to my mind.”’ “Tf you will have patience, sir, until Mas- ten returns,” said Vokes, “I think I can make it clear.”’ ‘““Does that mean you know who com- mitted the crime?” “‘Certainly!”’ “Tt was not Geoffrey?” Vokes shook his head. ‘‘Young Mr. Variole had nothing to do with it,” he said. The General heaved a great sigh of relief. “Thank God for that!’ he said. “I am almost as fond of that boy as if he were my own. And now Mr. Vokes, one question: Is it your intention to arrest Masten on his return?’”’ ‘“‘T have no power to arrest him, General. I am not here in an official capacity.”’ ‘SBecause,”’ continued the General, “if you will allow me to say so, it seems a very unwise move to send him for a loaded pistol which he would be pretty sure to use—that is, if he returns at all, which I very much doubt.” A twig snapped in the wood a short dis- tance away, and Vokes drew out his watch. ‘Two minutes under the half hour,” he said. ‘‘General, I should have won my wager. If Iam not mistaken, this is Mas- ten now.” The words had hardly left his lips when the valet appeared in the glade and, spying us, advanced. Ineither hand he held a revolver. (© Gbooks CO