Page:Chipperfield--Unseen Hands.djvu/145

Rh not be heard through the massive walls of that old-fashioned house—waiting until he saw that it was about to come down and then going in on some flimsy excuse about one of the letters to his stepfather and the attorney in order to establish the fact of his narrow escape?

"I admit that I do not believe him capable of conceiving such a plan; but if the details were drilled into him by someone else and the incentive strong enough, I am convinced that he could carry it out. Do you remember my telling you about some letters that I took from his desk after I had interrupted him in his task of burning them? I have them here and they will recall someone to you whom we have been trying to get for a long time."

Captain Lewis took the letters, glanced over them, frowned at the signature, and at last brought his mighty fist down resoundingly on the desk.

"Farley Drew! So he had his hooks into that lad too, did he?"

"Not only Gene, but the other brother also, I understand; the one who is dead. There is a certain note here in particular that I want you to read."

Odell selected the one which he had first hurriedly scanned in Gene's room that morning and laid it before his chief.

"‘Where do you think you get off—in too deep—meant you should be—mother's went off without a hitch—got to be done by the sixth—mean business—Farley Drew. The captain skimmed it hastily aloud and glanced up at his subordinate. "It is coercion, of course, perhaps blackmail, but what has it to do—"

"Gene's mother was already dead when that note was