Page:Arthur Stringer - The Hand of Peril.djvu/191

 under the glass. And three banks had O.K'd it before it was turned in!"

"I'll do my best," answered Kestner, "but you'll have to let me do it my own way."

"It's your case," assented the Chief's voice.

It was at the same moment that Kestner meditatively hung up the receiver that a knock sounded on his door. He crossed the room and peered into his fan-light projecting-mirror with its minute camera obscura attachment (an invention of his own) and saw that his caller was nothing more than a messenger-boy in uniform. Before he could turn the key and open the door, however, the knock was repeated.

Kestner eyed that boy keenly as he stepped inside. The occupant of the room even yawned and stretched himself, with an air of indifference, but made his scrutiny still more searching. For the sealed envelope which he stared down at bore Kestner's own name, to say nothing of this new address of his which he had supposed unknown to the rest of the world.

He signed for the message, opened it, and motioned for the boy to sit down. At the same moment Kestner backed against the door and quietly turned the key in the lock. For one quick glance had already carried back to consciousness the startling fact that the sheet of paper which he held was signed by Maura Lambert herself.

The message which he found himself reading was both explicit and brief. "Could I see you at once?" it read. "I ask only because it is most urgent and most important. Maura Lambert."

After studying this message for a second time