Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 99: what you’re looking at

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

ABOVE SUSPICION. turn that mare out to die after overworkin’ her for nigh onto sixteen year? I found her flounderin’ round in that first big snow- storm last winter and took her home. It’s funny he ain’t sent for you afore this if it’s some days since he got hurt, for he’s pre- cious careful o’ his own hide.” ‘“There’s something funnier yet about it. He says he stepped on a piece of driftwood while he was wading around on the shore, but he wouldn’t tell me just how long ago it was; says he forgets. What do you sup- pose he was doing down there?” “ Snoopin’ round somebuddy’s boathouse, likely, to see what he could pick up. Dun- no when he ain’t thievin’.” Geoff dismissed the reprobate with a shrug. “Time to turn the lights on, doc? It’s mighty dark ‘long here.” “1 guess it’s safe enough now,” the doc- tor responded. ‘ Whatever took you to the city to-day? It wasn’t some notion you got about Lane, was it?.’ “T wanted to see a feller that works for Mr. Ashe, young Rupert’s father.” Geoff’s reply was conscientiously literal. “ I picked up more’n a little, one way and another, ‘bout Lane and Benkard® to-day, but I'll tell it to you when we see what this detec- tive from headquarters has found out. I got a sort 0’ s’pission, but I may be dead wrong and I ain’t goin’ to git myself mixed up in this business worse’n I be!” Dr. Hood glanced sidewise at his com- panion, but the rugged, homely face was set and determined in the dim glow from the lamps and he knew better from past experi- ence than to pursue the subject further. Geoff would unbosom himself in his own good time and not a minute before. The ancient car rattled and creaked, but gathered speed. The tilled fields gave place to pasture land and stretches of woods with here and there a dark and silent farm- house. The distance seemed interminable, but the picnic grove was reached at last. They had scarcely pulled in under the shed when a figure advanced as before to meet them. “Evening, doctor. I was beginning to think vou and your friend here couldn’t make it.” 569 The voice of Detective Lyons spoke from the dense blackness. “Sorry I haven’t got anything to report except where our man wasn’t last Wednes- day night. I’ve checked up on every friend and associate of his that I could locate. From the time he left that garage at Brook- lands until he drove into his own in town he seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. “There’s just one point, though; he wasn’t riding around very much. I saw the garage helper again at the Cavendish, the one who gave me the first straight dope on him, and he says that if Lane stocked up full with gas and oil at about the distance Brooklands is from the city—I didn’t give him the name of the burg, of course, only the approximate number of miles—there wasn’t but a little more used up than would bring him in. The water in the radiator wasn’t even hot. “That looks as though Lane had driven straight to New York and the car had been standing somewhere not any great distance from the garage for a good part of those four hours. I'll get the goods on him yet, though, if you’ll give me a little more time. - You couldn’t give me any further lead on him, could you, sir? We're wise to why he and Benkard quarreled, of course, but it might help some more if we knew what brought them together last year when they'd been enemies for so long.” “T haven’t been able to find anybody who could tell me that, Lyons, and I can’t offer you any suggestions,’ Dr. Hood said and added shrewdly: “‘ Perhaps Geoff Peters can, though; he knows more of what’s been going on around the Cayley place than I do.” “T ain’t been nigh it to-day.” Geoff paused. “ This afternoon I went to see that rich widow lady that’s bought the big Du- rant estate over to Silver Bay; Mrs. Van Wert her name is. She wants me to put up some statoos for her round the grounds.” “ Has that got anything to do with the case?’’ demanded the doctor as Lyons moved impatiently. “I kinder thought it might have, seein’s she’s tryin’ to git into society and knows Lane and the Cayleys and Benkard pretty Gomichbooksrecom