Page:Resurrection Rock (1920).pdf/294



ARLY that afternoon, Lucas's dependable operative reported that he had followed Ethel Carew from the house on Scott Street to the Union Station where she purchased a ticket and boarded a Chicago, Burlington and Quincy train for Sheridan, Wyoming. She had been unattended and plainly under the stress of strong emotion. Lucas sent the man back to Scott Street to wait for Barney Loutrelle. Accordingly, the man later reported that a few minutes before three, Loutrelle walked past the Oliver Cullen house, looking up at the windows; almost exactly at three, he presented himself at the door and was admitted by a servant. Four minutes later, Loutrelle came out, evidently so astonished at what he had learned in the house that he seemed completely at a loss. He set off, walking so rapidly that the operative had great difficulty in following him; but his choice of direction seemed to be haphazard. He halted in a quiet spot and took from his pocket a note which he read and reread; at last he went to a boarding house on Superior Street, where he had a room.

The operative, forsaking the field of direct observation for an excursion into deduction, ventured that Loutrelle's agitation was due to the note which explained Miss Carew's sudden departure.

"I wouldn't be a mite surprised," Lucas said com-