manager, is under suspicion.”

Fay led the way along the sidewalk and threaded his steps through a group of young men outside the Gray Taxi Garage. He eyed each one for possible red hair and turned-up nose. He entered the doorway, dodged a fast-flying taxi which was coming out on second speed, then knocked upon the ground glass of a door marked Private—Keep Out—This Means You!

Private—Keep Out—This Means You!

A slip of a girl answered the knock. She glanced from Fay’s face to the peering countenance of Rake.

“Well?” she asked.

“I’m looking for a Miss Elsie De Groot,” said Fay, thrusting his foot forward. “I’m a newspaper man. I—want to write her up for a Western syndicate. It ought to bring some business.”

The girl toyed with a pencil which she jabbed like a bayonet into a raven-hued turban. “I’ll see,” she said, turning and gliding through an inner door.

Presently her elfin face gladdened the opening as Fay half advanced into the outer office.

“Come in, please. Miss De Groot will see you.”

Chester Fay removed his cap, crushed it between his fingers and stepped briskly forward. He paused before the edge of a rug. Across this rug sat a girl. She swiveled in a businesslike chair and threw one neat ankle over the other. She glanced impatiently upward.

“We’d like to see you alone,” Fay said as he noted a mop of reddish hair and a freckled nose which seemed to be pressed up by an unseen finger. “Alone,” he added, swinging upon the stenographer and jerking his chin toward the door.

“Why, certainly!”

The girl slipped out and closed the door. Fay left Rake’s side and moved up close to a littered desk which bore some resemblance to order.

“To be brief as time!” he said, drawing a card from his pocket. “To be brief,” he whispered, replacing the card, “I want to know just why you took a taxi at or about six o’clock last night, went down to the Southampton Dock and waited for a passenger who wore a Silver Greyhound—indicating that he was on British Government business, urgent and pressing.”

The girl’s broad forehead whitened slightly. She recrossed her trim ankles. She tapped the desk before her with polished nails. She reached and adjusted 

 Prev. P 8/24 next