He eyed the detectives with such a vindictive look that they could see he would have knocked their heads off if he dared. Finally, though, he regained his composure a little and asked: "What object did you see us pull out of the water?" "Really, I can't say. You were too far from the dock for us to distinguish exactly what it was. But it looked something like the corpse of a man." "You must be crazy, Brady!" "Do you think so? We don't. But you've aroused our curiosity about that mysterious trip on the river and we'd like to know what it all meant." "You'll never learn from me." "Oh, I suppose not--voluntarily. Anyway, you ought to tell us why you are so intimate with your uncle's negro valet----" "You make me sick!" exclaimed Mason, wearily. "Sim told me all about your looney suspicions about he and I making away with my uncle. But I defy you to prove any of your crack-brained theories. You are on the wrong trail, Brady. And I advise you to leave me alone, or by jingo, I'll defend myself and make it very warm for you." "Got a big political pull?" laughed the old detective. "No, but I carry a gun in my pocket!" hissed Mason, furiously. "Oh, pshaw! That don't scare me a bit, my boy. Then you won't confess----" "I'll tell you nothing of my personal affairs!" roared Mason. "Clear out! Mind your own business. Leave me alone! I don't want to have anything to do with you fellows! Do you understand?" And he scowled and stamped his foot on the pavement and rushed past them and hastily entered his house. The Bradys laughed and walked away. "He's getting afraid of us," said Harry. "Yes. We are wearing on his nerves. He knows we are watching him, and it makes him very uneasy. However, when we get good proof of his guilt, we'll nail him, and that will end his rascality." They felt confident that Mason would not come out again that night and therefore went home. On the following morning a great surprise awaited them. Harry was reading the daily paper and caught view of this item: "The missing man found. Oliver Dalton, the well-known Broad street broker, found drowned in the East river. At ten o'clock last night Martin Kelly, an old junk dealer, picked up the mutilated corpse of a well-dressed man in the East river off the foot of East Forty-second street. He towed it behind his skiff to the morgue, and turned the corpse over to the authorities, with an account of his ghastly find. The body had been in the water so long it would have been unrecognizable if it were not for some private papers found in the pockets, by means of which the man's identity was established. A reporter was the first one to bring the news to the dead man's daughter, etc." When Harry read the item aloud, Old King Brady cried: "Harry, had Mason's trip on the river anything to do with finding that corpse?" "Let us go down to the morgue and get the facts." Old King Brady nodded and they hastened across town.