"Note this, Archie, from a Boston paper of today. Our old friend Congdon
has stirred up the Boston police about the disappearance of his son. I
don't ask you to make any comment on that item; I merely call your
attention to the fact that Putney Congdon is on the missing list and
like ourselves Putney Congdon was at Bailey Harbor. Nothing particularly
startling in all this, as the police records show something like an
average of one thousand four hundred and thirteen missing or unaccounted
for persons in the United States every year. This paper says that
Congdon was seen by one person and one only at Bailey Harbor. That was a
garage man who sold him some gas--it was a stormy night--and
incidentally that night poor Hoky set sail for the happy isles. And the
date is further memorable from the fact that it was the occasion of our
first meeting. And the blood stains on the board walk of one of the
streets at Bailey--"
"Stop, for God's sake!" cried Archie. "I'll tell you everything; I'll--"
"You'll tell me nothing, because I refuse to listen! Confessing is a
habit. If I encourage you to confess to me you'll be pouring your tale
into the ear of the first policeman you meet. As things stand you are
not suspected, and if we follow my program you are likely to walk the
world in safety for the rest of your days. If I knew the circumstances I
might become nervous and I must retain my poise or we perish. Your
autobiography for the past week or so would make a ripping narrative,
but you'd better learn to forget. Our yesterdays are as nothing; it's
tomorrow we've got to think about. Those Congdons are rather a
picturesque lot as I catch them in cinema flashes. It appears from the
paper that young Putney's wife had left him, and there was some sort of
row about the children. The old boy we struck at Cornford will probably
be charging the absconding wife with killing Putney the first thing we
know!"
"Charge Mrs. Congdon with killing her husband! O my God!" wailed Archie.
"Control yourself, my dear boy! One would infer from that item that Mrs.
Congdon dropped off the earth after she left Bailey Harbor. She and her
children motored out of Bailey and haven't yet reached their house in
New York, for which she was presumably bound. By Jove, it's woozzy the
way these Congdons keep bobbing up! I'd give something handsome to know
how the old chap and Seebrook came out at Cornford. I learn that they're
holding Silent Tim, the chap I told you would be arrested, and our part
in the delicate transaction is already obscured."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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