Page:Chipperfield--Unseen Hands.djvu/193



N the gray of dawn two dirty, bedraggled, unshaven figures trailed up the wide, low stairs at Police Headquarters and presented themselves before Captain Lewis.

"Well, of all the Odell! Where have you been? Miller, why didn't you come back to report? This is a h—l of a note!" The captain, worn from his night-long vigil, blustered to mask his relief. "If this is the way you conduct a case. Sergeant"—

"It isn't," Odell replied wearily. "Miller and I have been personally conducted for the last thirty-six hours; tied up in an old boathouse on the shore at Windermere, Connecticut, after being held up and blackjacked by a couple of crooks hired by Sims, Farley Drew's man."

He made a detailed report; and at its conclusion the chief issued some hurried orders, and then turned to Miller.

"Did you recognize the man who brought you your food; the one who the Sergeant says was called Pete?"

"No, Captain. It was pretty dark under that boathouse in spite of the sun shining outside, and I couldn't place his voice. Volkert can identify him, though, if Tony has skipped out by the time the boys get there."

"Tony won't do much skipping if he's sleeping off a whiskey-and-laudanum jag," the captain reported grimly. 181