Page:The Whisper on the Stair by Lyon Mearson (1924).djvu/137

 “That mysterious bird’s been here again—and gone,” he muttered to himself, and in the same breath cursed himself for his careless stupidity.

Of course he had come for the books—it was to be expected; it was positively stupid not to watch out for him. Yet it had not occurred to either of them, somehow. These were not things that happened in every day life, though they were common in books. One did not expect midnight visitors without hands, who came in when you weren’t looking and went just as silently. And yet it had occurred. He had come in and taken the books. It was as easy as that.

That being the case, where was his employer. It was not like him to go out again, when once he had come home for the night. In fact, he had told Eddie that he intended to go to bed in a few minutes, after he had made a cursory examination of the books. And now he was gone, and an examination proved to Eddie that he had taken his light fall coat and a hat. Evidently he had gone of his own free will.

Also, evidently, he had gone before the books had been stolen, because there was no sign of any struggle, and Eddie did not consider it possible that anybody could come in and gather up those books and make his escape without Mr. Morley’s being aware of it.

That led to another train of thought. Probably the intruder knew that he would not be home. That being the case, Eddie carried the idea a little further. Perhaps he had made sure that his employer would not be home by the simple expedient of calling him out on some cock and bull errand.

Where was he now? Perhaps he needed him.

“Might’ve knew what would happen, soon’s he got mixed up with a woman,” muttered Eddie. He had