Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 4 — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

556 “Holy Mother!” he ejaculated. “‘ Was it a ghost or the murderer himself, do you think, Mac?” | ‘Whoever it was, twas no ghost, Den- ny, as you'll see later,’”’ McCarty averred. ‘The drawers of the desk in the house- keeper’s room were locked, and .when I lifted the end and shook it I could hear something heavy, like books, sliding around inside; I noticed, too, that the locks them- selves were rusty. Mind that. There were no keys in the room, though we looked everywhere, so the inspector and I beat it down to the study once more, where Clancy was waiting with the dicks from borough headquarters. | “They all said they hadn’t been back up-stairs again, and the inspector kidded me about hearing things, but I couldn’t get the thought of that shadow out of my mind, and as soon as I could I slipped away and up to Creveling’s room once more; the sound that I thought I’d heard when we were on the upper floor seemed to come from there. “Everything looked just the same as when we had left it, but when I went over to have a second look at the little drawer with the spring lock in the desk there were new marks on it overlaying those our fingers had made; whoever had followed us wore gloves, as you could see plain from the oil the desk had been rubbed up with. Ghosts don’t wear gloves, Denny.” “Then who—” ‘“T went over the same ground from room to room that I’d been through with the inspector only a few minutes before; but I didn’t find anything else till I came to the housekeeper’s room again,’ McCar- ty continued, unheeding the interruption. ‘“The locks on the desk there were shiny and dripping with fresh oil, and, when I lifted it, it was lighter and nothing slid around inside. ‘Somebody had slipped up behind us and opened the drawers of both the desks, taking out whatever was inside—some- body who knew how to work that spring lock. I didn’t find hide nor hair of him, though, and I’d upset and broke a bottle of perfumery in Mrs. Creveling’s room, bad luck to it! When I got back down to the ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. study Clancy sniffed it on me, and I doubt that I’ve lost the smell of it yet!” He went on, telling of the arrival of George Alexander, the valet Hill, his own discovery of the blood-stained card thrust under the tapestry on the table and the ” ‘return of Mrs. Creveling and finally the cook and butler. ‘“ And all you’ve got to go oh,” Dennis summed up for him, “ is the bit of amber . mouth-piece the other man had smoked with, the lone card, and the marks of gloved fingers on the desk up-stairs.” ‘Not quite. I’m asking myself a lot of questions, Denny, for there’s more in a look sometimes or a chance word than in all the finger-prints in the world. For in- stance,-what’s there between that valet and Mrs. Creveling’s uncle, George Alexander? They tried their best to slip away for a little confab together, but I kept my eye on them; there’s something they both know, and each of.them were afraid that the other would let it out. “Why did that valet Hill say he had just ‘ returned ’ and correct.it to ‘ arrived ’? If he had nothing to conceal either on his own account or on Creveling’s, why did I have to drag out of him the little I learned? Why wouldn’t he tell where he’d been all — night? ‘When the inspector asked him if he knew ~Creveling was coming to his house last evening, ’twas on the tip of his tongue to deny it when the remembered that he’d taken the, things from the caterer’s men himself for the supper, and they’d say so if they were questioned. It’s plain, of course, that Creveling got rid of all the servants for the night, so that none of them should see who his company was; but I’ve an idea that Hill knows, all the same.” “You don’t think ”—Dennis chose his words with evident care—‘‘ you don’t think maybe it was a lady he had to supper, and she shot him after in a fit of jealousy?” “With a .44 that has a kick to it like an army mule?” McCarty snorted. ‘“ In- spector Druet asked Hill if Creveling ever entertained ladies in his home during his wife’s absence, and the valet said no, that they were strictly stag suppers, and he didn’t seem any too anxious to give the + crginal froma rn icbOO GO)