Argosy All-Story Weekly, December 2, 1922 — page 109: what you’re looking at

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

ABOVE SUSPICION. “T gotta be movin’ ‘long, too, doc,” Geoff remarked quickly as soon as Lyons had taken his departure. ‘“‘ Want to finish them doodabs on that terrace in the next day or two—”’ ‘ Geoff,” the doctor interrupted, ‘‘ I wish we could have managed ourselves to get that woman to talk. Don’t you see that if she does go to headquarters and furnish them with any real clew, the city police will get all the credit? I don’t want any, the Lord knows, but I’d like to have this county show ’em it can take care of its own troubles and that our justice isn’t so blind even if she does wear a sunbonnet!” Geoff grinned as he picked up his cap and started for the door. ‘“‘ Don’t you let that worry you none, doc. By all accounts, we’re dealin’ with a wom- an that’s as smart as a steel trap, and she’d no more go nigh the city police than she’d send an invite for dinner to the chief of the Secret Service Departmint. I’m figger- in’ on kind o’ a little s’prise party for all concerned. You ain’t heard from Allen since he followed Lane away from the Cayley place yesterday afternoon?” “No. Ill get word somehow to you if I hear from him to-morrow.” But it was Geoff who encountered the lone motorcyclist on his way to work early the next morning, and the latter began hastily, without preamble: ‘“‘Glad I was in time to catch you, Pe- ters. I left another of the boys on the job in New York and ran out here to make my report to the medical examiner, but the old woman who takes care of his cot- tage for him says he had a hurry call from somebody named Sim Perkins, and after that he’s going his rounds. I can’t wait— got to beat it back, and I guess you can get a message to him for me.” ‘“Reckon so, Mr. Allen, if there ain’t no partic’lar hurry bout it,” Geoff replied. ‘“T won’t be able to see him till sundown.” “That’s all right. I didn’t want to phone; too many listening in. Now, bo, get this straight. Lane hit town at 7 P.M. Sunday night; phoned from a booth in the station to York 6260. Couldn’t hear the message; coops on each side occupied and a crowd milling around in front. Lane went 579 to his rooms for half an hour—no message incoming or outgoing while he was there; © then to his club for dinner, all dolled up in evening clothes, and after that to a house near the park. I’ve got a memo here of the address, as well as that phone number.”’ Detective Allen handed over a slip of paper. “He got there in a taxi about nine and left at twelve fifteen, going home to his rooms for the night. Next morning—yes- terday—he was at his office at nine thirty, and went through his usual day’s routine, stopping at his club for an hour afterward; then his rooms to change; dinner on the Belle-terre roof with a man identified as the head of a Chicago brokerage house; and then home. He was still there at six o’clock this morning. Is that all clear?” ‘The main p’ints o’ it,” Geoff drawled. ‘‘ Seems to me from somethin’ the doc said, that I’d kinder keep tabs on the folks that come to Lane’s office or that telephone to him to-day if you kin; reckon he thinks it’s likely important.” Allen nodded and started the motor. “Got you,” he said briefly. ‘“‘ So-long.” He disappeared in a swirling cloud of dust down the road, and Geoff proceeded to the Cayley place, where he passed an uneventful day at work on the terrace. Mrs. Cayley and her daughter, as well as the two maids, kept closely indoors. Of neither the private detective nor the one from the county district attorney’s office was there a sign. At a little after five he ceased his labors, cleaned up the débris of his work, and start- ed for home to have supper and feed his — four-footed friends before delivering Allen’s report to the doctor. As he neared the path which branched off across the meadow, how- ever, he saw a smart little coupé halted at the crossroads ahead and caught a glimpse from within of an imperiously beckoning, white-gloved hand. Geoff sauntered leisurely toward it, and one of the men in livery on the box de- scended and opened the rear door, disclosing a lady whose soft gray veil did not conceal her vivid coloring nor the almost feverish glow in the deep hazel eyes she bent upon him. Eomicbooks.com ‘ oe oe me . Se = = ere Pee