Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 3 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

HOW MANY CARDS? knowing that the message was relayed to the borough headquarters. “It’s too big entirely for them to han- dle,” declared McCarty contemptuously, when the other had hung up the receiver. ““T'll put a call through myself to general headquarters and tip them off. Maybe my old friend Inspector Druet might be there and could happen along up here before the gumshoes from the bushes have a chance to ball up the game. It’s highly irregu- lar, but I’m only a private citizen now, by the grace-of my uncle—may God rest his scul—and I’m free to do as I please.” CHAPTER Il. A BIT OF AMBER. Inspector Druet, seated at his desk in the homicide bureau there present- ly came over the wire a well-known voice, husky with ill-suppressed excitement. - “ Mac, you old scoundrel!” he exclaimed . in affectionate banter. “ Where have you been keeping yourself, and what are you doing ‘this time of night?” “Im mixing in: high society, sir.” Mc- Carty’s tones were cautious. “I’m m a grand private house up on the avenue, fac- ing the park just above the third side en- trance—of the park, I mean, sir—and there Il be quite a little party here soon, I’m thinking. Maybe you’d like to get in a little ahead—’”’ ‘ “What is it? Where are you?” The inspector’s own tones had crisped. “ Mac, - have you tumbled head foremost into another—?”’ “Tis the house of Mr. Eugene Creve- ling, sir; him they used to call Million-a- month. Jim Clancy is here with me and @ young crook we copped by the way, but none of the family seems to be at home ex- ‘cept himself, and we found him with the heart of him pierced by a bullet from an army gun.’ 2 “Tl be with you,” ‘the Inspector said briefly and the two receivers clicked in unison. — ‘* It would f never have been known until Heaven knows when if you hadn’t nabbed this bird here,” Clancy spoke with reluc- «7293 tant, but irrepressible honesty. “ By the keys of Saint Peter, Mac, you’ve pulled off more stunts since you left the force than when you were on it! First that girl who was flung out the window of the Gla- morgan and then the other one that was strangled in the crime museum—”’ - ‘“"Twas Terhune, the great scientific de- tective that got at the truth in the first case, and the inspector himself who did the work in the other,” McCarty remarked with dignity. “I just poked around like the old has-been I am. But there comes the bus from the borough headquarters, and you'll be doing me a favor, Clancy, if you'll just forget I’m here until you're asked to tell what you know of it all. I'd like to snoop around a bit on my own ac- count till the inspector gets here.” “° “How do we know it isn’t suicide, any- way?” demanded Clancy as the clatter of the police gong grew louder on the air and his companion made for the door. “* Because there are no powder marks that [| saw,” McCarty replied succinctly. “Tf he’d held that cannon against his breast and fired it the powder would have been sprinkled all over the front of him.” As the automobile from the borough headquarters drew up before the door Mc- Carty dodged into the room next to the study. It proved to be a breakfast-room and the exroundsman whistled softly to himself “as he cautiously closed the door after finding and turning on the wall switch, which made the single low light over the table burst into a golden glow. The table was laid for two, and the re- | _ Mains of a supper were spread upon it, _while an empty quart champagne bottle stood upon the floor and a second. one reposed in the cooler, in the bottom of which a small quantity of ice still remained unmelted. McCarty’s brow knit at the sight of it, and he pulled out his watch. “ Quarter to three!” he muttered, then turned his attention to the table itself. The food,upon one plate was scarcely touched, but breadcrumbs were scattered all about it and the wine-glass was empty. On the other hand, the second plate had been cleaned save for fragments, half a inal fron 5 410 Se AGO a DOO i) 1) S C@ THE O