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As he spoke a flashing something appeared from the girl's pocket; he lifted one huge paw to beat her down; but a clenched hand, protected by a corded buckskin glove, thudded against his jaw; his knees weakened, and he sprawled upon the floor. "Jimmie!" gasped Edyth Vale. "Jimmie Pendleton!" "Oh, Edyth Edyth!" was all the man could say.
Ashton-Kirk comfortably blew one smoke-ring through another before he answered. "Will you be surprised to hear that I have been following Miss Edyth Vale on a little voyage to the neighborhood of Cordova?" "Again!" "But this time she did not pay a visit to Professor Locke. To-day the favored one was Allan Morris." "Morris! Then she knows where he is?" "So it would seem."
"But how did you know that Edyth heard a door close?" "Whoever rang the bell closed the door after him. It has a spring lock like the street door; and was locked when Miss Vale tried it a few moments later." "You say that the ringing of the bell shows the person who rang the bell to have been unacquainted with the place. I think you must be wrong here.
Then Edyth Vale, her voice shaking and filled with fear, said: "Oh! Is that you! I'm glad glad!" "Get a firm grip on yourself," advised Ashton-Kirk. "If anything has happened we can no doubt remedy it." There came a series of moaning sobs across the wire; the girl had evidently broken down and was crying. Ashton-Kirk said nothing; he waited patiently. Finally she spoke once more.
Then to Pendleton, he added as the machine started, "I want to make some inquiries at the house where Spatola lived; and in order to make the matter clearer, we'll just drop in at 478." As they proceeded along at a bounding pace, the investigator related to Pendleton what had passed between Edyth Vale and himself a few hours before. Pendleton drew a great breath of relief.
He was fumbling with a coat pocket as though to stow them away, when there came a swift, light rush, the packet was torn from his hands, and Edyth Vale was darting toward the hall door and the stairway beyond. But despite his bulk, the man with the stooped shoulders proved himself singularly swift.
The door closed behind Osborne, and then Ashton-Kirk followed the soft-footed servant down the hall, up the stairs and into the presence of Edyth Vale. The girl received him smilingly. "I'm getting to be a regular occurrence," said he, as he sat down. "But a welcome one, nevertheless," she returned.
And it was after I discovered that she was not to be dazzled that I sort of gave up. I wasn't anybody I never would be anybody; and Edyth would be the sort of woman who would expect her husband to take the front at a jump. And no sensible person could imagine me at the front of anything, unless it was a procession on its way to the bow-wows."
The grave faced German opened it, ushering in an astonishingly lovely girl; tall, most fashionably attired and with a manner of eager anxiety. Both men arose. "Considering that you are under twenty-five," said Pendleton, "you are remarkably prompt in keeping your engagements, Edyth." But the girl did not answer his smile.
"Why, for years, I think," answered Pendleton. "Being very distantly related, Edyth and I saw quite a deal of each other when she was a slip of a girl. And she was a stunner, Kirk, even then. Kid-like, I fancied I'd get it all over with when the proper time came; but somehow I never got around to it.
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