What was the man doing back in the hotel, anyway? Lefty wondered as he took the elevator downstairs. The mere fact of his presence in that corridor after he had been fired looked suspicious. “It’s a shame I didn’t come out of my room a minute sooner,” the cub pitcher grumbled to himself as he entered the lobby. “I’d have nailed him. By Jove, Jack! You’re just the chap I want to see.” He caught Stillman by the arm, and propelled him toward a couple of empty chairs near by. “Who do you think I saw up in our corridor about fifteen minutes ago?” “That waiter who was fired yesterday morning,” the newspaper man returned without an instant’s hesitation. Lefty gasped. “What! Did you see him too?” “No; but I heard him talking to Elgin. Our rooms adjoin, you know, and there’s a connecting door which is locked. I was up there, doping out some stuff to send to the paper, when I began to hear scraps of talk coming through the door. Didn’t pay much attention at first, for I wanted to get my story off in the five-thirty mail, but I made out that somebody was trying to get money out of our friend. That made me sit up and take a little more notice. The chap wanted fifteen dollars to take him to Dallas. Elgin balked, of course, and then the waiter said it would be the last touch he’d make, and, anyhow, it was little enough, considering all he’d done for Elgin. They scrapped back and forth for a bit, and then I reckon Elgin shelled out, for I didn’t hear anything more. “The fool part of it was that I never wised up to who he was till afterward. I was thinking about my news dope, I suppose. Anyhow, it wasn’t till after I’d got that out of the way that I began to wonder whether the strange guy might not have been this man we want to get hold of. It certainly looked a bit like it, his bleeding Elgin that way.” “Didn’t he say anything about what he’d done for Elgin?” Lefty asked eagerly. “No, or I’d have woke up in a jiffy. It was only that he’d done something which put him personally to the bad. I haven’t a doubt now as to what that something was, but I’m afraid there isn’t anything you could call real proof.” Locke shook his head. “I’m afraid not,” he agreed slowly. More than ever he regretted that he had missed the rascal in the corridor by a hair’s breadth. Truly, luck seemed to be with Bert Elgin in everything he undertook. CHAPTER XX JANET HARTING WONDERS Lefty did not devote much more thought that night to Bert Elgin and his doings. Just before supper a letter arrived which drove every other idea from his head. For a second or two he stood staring at the familiar handwriting, wondering how in the world Janet had found out where he was. When he hastily slit the envelope and took in the meaning of the few lines on that single sheet of paper, his astonishment knew no bounds.