As the phones clicked off Updyke with stubborn tenacity, lunged back into the woof of his spider web. Everything seemed well in hand. Inquiry as to Villard showed satisfactory progress. He would live, but how he would come out of it was a question for Father Time to solve. Finally he called for Santzi and told him to sit by and wake him at prompt two-forty-five, and in two minutes more from the depths of the lounge he was competing with the fog horns of South Bay. To George Carver three o'clock was an unearthly rising hour, as many a man would willingly bear witness. But Winifred, at two-thirty, had switched on the current under the percolator, and only awaited the presence of her liege lord and master before connecting the toaster. It was the enticing odor of the bacon and coffee, not the alarm clock's mad music, that sent the young husband under the shower. At two-forty-five the telephone tingled, and Winifred ran forward to answer. "Are you up?" shouted a well-known voice, in a drowsy tone. "Can't you smell the coffee and bacon?" replied Winifred, gaily--"and the noise of that awful man under the shower? I'll tell him you're waiting. He's making more fuss than a porpoise," she concluded as she hastily snatched a bathrobe and hung it on a hook near the shower room. "Parkins has disclosed himself and his whereabouts," were Updyke's first words, as Winifred's husband took up the receiver. "That sounds interesting," replied Carver, with enthusiasm. "Glad to hear you say so, and I'll add--especially so, to you!" "Humph! Give me the details," replied Carver, who analyzed quickly. "Listen carefully, boy, and don't get excited about anything I tell you. By all means don't repeat any part of it to Winifred that concerns herself." "Yep--I get you--what's up?" "The scoundrel was here at Dreamy Hollow, just after dark. I was on my way down but he had done his mischief and gone before I arrived. The scene was in so and so's office where he appeared suddenly--bound and gagged Jacques who was taking out a tray of dishes. Then slipped over to so and so and covered him with a silencer automatic." "You don't say!" "Yep--he demanded the whereabouts of a certain girl--accused so and so of stealing her and gave him a third degree. So and so steadfastly refused all information, giving no inkling of her marriage or address. Julie Hayes is the only one in Patchogue who knows her real address--get me?" "Yep--go on--what happened between so and so and----" "So and so was beaten over the head with the butt of the revolver--knocked senseless. Santzi and Jerry looked in, wondering why Jacques had not returned with the tray of dishes. Unarmed they ran to spread alarm, but the whelp had escaped on their return." "How--only one door to the room?"