foreign places, and oil paintings that a mere novice could see were works of art. There was that in the room which suggested education and refinement.

A telephone was on the desk, and loose papers [Pg 21]partly written upon bore evidence that the detective had been busy at work when I arrived.

[Pg 21]

At a motion from my host I seated myself in one of the large arm chairs facing him, while he remained standing.

I saw that he was a man about thirty-eight or forty years old, straight as an arrow and splendidly proportioned. He was dressed in a well-fitting gray suit.

The light was from above, and Oakes's face showed well—the clear-cut nose and generous mouth of the energetic American.

He looked at me critically with deep-set, steady blue eyes, then smiled slightly in a well-controlled, dignified manner.

"Mr. Stone, I am very glad that you were able to come tonight. Make yourself at home," he said.

I made an appropriate answer of some kind, and then Oakes took the seat near me and began, without further ceremony:

"I have arranged that our friend Dr. Moore shall come here this evening; meanwhile, I will inform you briefly of the subject in hand." [Pg 22]

[Pg 22]

"A few months ago Mandel & Sturgeon the attorneys, whom you doubtless know, consulted me regarding the unpleasant happenings at the mansion of one Odell Mark, up-State, in the town of Mona.

"Now, Mandel & Sturgeon suggested, also, that you might care to help unravel the matter, acting as their legal representative.

"I have completed my arrangements for starting on the case, and am particularly glad to find that you are a friend of Dr. Moore and that you had expressed to him a desire to enter into some such affair. I assure you, however, that Mandel & Sturgeon had previously spoken of you and that this offer was coming as a business proposition. The fact that you and Dr. Moore had spoken of such a trip is merely a coincidence."

He spoke with a well-modulated voice, and a fluency that told of the intelligence of the man. His eyes fixed me, but not in an embarrassing manner; it was the habit of observation that prompted their concentration—that was obvious.

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