Page:Arthur Stringer - The Hand of Peril.djvu/172

. And that means I'll want your help at my end of the line."

"What have you rounded up?"

"I've rounded up that Saginaw man's house!"

"How?"

"It took over two hours of canvassing, first renting agencies and later the employment bureaus. I knew he'd have to have a servant or two. They sent him up a butler two days ago. And I'm shadowing that butler at the present moment."

"Why the butler? "

"Because he began his new job by showing he's a flat-looter looking for larger fields. He's just unloaded a bundle of silverware on a Sixth Avenue pawn-shop, and I've got him across the street at Tierney's drinking corn whiskey and cursing the Japanese."

"Then what do you want me to do?" Wilsnach inquired.

"Let the dictophone go for to-night and get Byrnes on the wire. Have him hurry a city force man up to Tierney's—one he can trust. I want that butler held down at headquarters until some time to-morrow. But here's the important point: that man's got the pass-key to the house. I want that key before he gets out of Tierney's!"

"All right! Anything else?"

"In an hour's time I want you to be covering that house. Make a note of the street and number.… And if Sadie Wimpel is there, those Lambert plates are there with her."

"Supposing she shows up, do I let her go in?"

Kestner pondered this question for a minute or two.