Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 7, 1928 — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

172 After serving the meal on a small table in the sitting room, he started for the door to retire until summoned to re- move the dishes as was his usual cus- tom. Then he turned back under the pretext of taking out one of Ward’s suits for pressing, and managed to dal- ly in the closet until Ward had fin- ished his soup. That was as far as Edison Ward went with that meal. When Whitley emerged from the closet, the young man was already sprawled unconscious across the table. Whitley imperturbably picked him up and carried him into his bedroom, where he undressed the limp figure and placed it in the bed. Then he returned and cleared the table, disposing of the uneaten food in a sink in the labora- tory. Thereupon after a suitable de- lay, he took the dishes down to the kitchen. 3 “ Mr. Ward wished me to come back and do a little rearranging of his clos- ets,” he explained to Haskins, and re- turned to Ward’s suite. There he waited until the method- ical Haskins and his corps of servants had retired, a little earlier than usual, ' and then, removing his shoes he slipped quietly down the back stairs to the serv- ants’ entrance and opening the door gave a low whistle. A moment later Coddington and Redfern appeared: “We'll shp quietly upstairs in the dark, gentlemen,’ Whitley told them. “ | dropped a bit of sleeping powder in the servants’ coffeepot to-night, so I'll guarantee they’re all dead to the world, but we'll be taking no chances. And I’ve the lights out in Mr. Ward's rooms, too. It ‘ll be just as well 1f you work with flash ights. So many queer things have happened around that suite of rooms lately that I’d not care to take any chances of you gentlemen being seen. You can search just as well with a flash light, and your faces won’t be in evidence, or any light showing in the room.” Redfern gave Whitley an approving ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. slap on the back, and the three tiptoed cautiously up the stairs and into the Ward: suite. Whitley himself took his station by the side of the bed in which Ward lay in a drugged stupor. He was provided with a sponge soaked im chloroform to use in case his master should come out of his wunnat- ural slumber sooner than expected, or the search required more time than had been planned. Coddington and Redfern, with small flash lights in hand, which shed no light except on the object which they were examining, went over every inch of the four walls of the suite. Every cabinet and closet was thoroughly in- spected, especially for hidden recesses or secret drawers. Even the floor boards were gone over one by one, to make certain none was detachable. Then, panel by panel, they made a systematic study of the walls of each room. No possibility of a hidden spring or lock was overlooked. It was half past three in the morning and the first faint flush of early summer sunrise was clearing in the east when they finished their search, and finished it in vain. The three baffled men withdrew at last m order that thé outsiders might get away from the house before day- heht. “ I'm mighty sorry that you didn’t succeed,” Whitley told them, as they parted at the door. “It must be that Mr. Ward has a hiding place some- where else in the house that none of us has thought about.” ; “All right, Whitley,” Redfern as- sured him. “I don’t blame you. You know too well what’s good for you to try to double cross us. But we're going to come again, and next time young Mr. Ward himself is going to show us where he keeps his papers.” XI. THE Ward household servants all overslept a little that morning, except- ing the worthy Whitley, who was EOPMICLOOOKS (E@)