Page:The Master of Mysteries (1912).djvu/401

 "Then I'll have to look over the files myself. What a bore!"

He went into the waiting-room and began listlessly to turn the sheets. He had not gone far before Valeska heard a low whistle. Running up to him, she saw him reading a news item under the following headings: "Aged Woman Killed in Subway Station. Run Over by Down-town Express After Falling on Track in View of Crowd."

"Look at that!" he exclaimed. "This happened at a quarter to three o'clock yesterday. The mysterious lady might easily have been at the Fourteenth-Street station at the time of the accident."

"And what does that prove?"

"Nothing yet! but it's a chance for a clue; a queer coincidence, at any rate. I'll take a think, when I have leisure."

He went back to the studio, and, after he had finished reading the palm of his first client, Valeska entered with the list:

Audubon

Barclay

Beekman

Broad

Bryant

Chelsea

City Island

Columbus

Cortland

Franklin

Gramercy

Hanover

Harlem

John

Kingsbridge

Lenox

Madison Sq.

Marble

Melrose

Morning Side

Murray Hill

Orchard

Plaza

Rector

Riverside

Schuyler

Spring

Stuyvesant

Tremont

Westchester

Williamsbridge

Worth

Astro glanced it over, and penciled it as he talked. "We'll first strike out all the stations obviously not in the residence districts where the lady would be likely to live. We may leave out Beekman, Barclay, Broad, City Island, Franklin, Cortland, John, Hanover, Orchard, Rector, and Worth. That leaves us still nine-