"Because I didn't want you to precipitate matters just then, Guy," the
detective responded, kindly. "The house was watched--they couldn't get
away."
"That's a good one!" Young Morrow looked his self-disgust. "Hire
operatives on your staff, sir, and then have to set others to tail
them, and see that they don't get into trouble! Heavens, what an idiot
I am! I've found out one thing, though, from those cryptograms"--he
pointed to the cipher notes on the desk. "Music's a cinch! I can read
it already, and I'm going to start in and learn how to play on
something or other, the first chance I get! There's a fellow next door
to Mrs. Quinlan's with a clarinet--" He paused, and his face sobered
as he added: "But I forgot! I sha'n't be there any more."
Before Blaine could speak, there was a knock upon the door, and Marsh
entered with hurried circumspection. There was a look of latent,
shocked importance upon his usually impassive face, and he carried in
his hand a newspaper which was still damp from the press.
"I beg your pardon, sir, but I thought you would want to know at once.
There's been a murder! Paddington, the private detective, was found in
the Rhododendron Alley, just off the Mall in the park, stabbed to the
heart!"
Henry Blaine took the paper and spread it out upon the desk before
him, as Guy Morrow, with a soft, low whistle, turned away. The "extra"
imparted little more than the secretary's announcement had done. There
was no known motive for the crime, no clue to the murderer. When
found, the man had been dead for some hours.
"Well, sir," observed Guy at last, when the secretary had withdrawn,
"one by one they're getting away from us--and by the same route. First
Rockamore, now Paddington!"
Blaine looked up with a grim smile.
"Putting a woman wise to anything is like lighting a faulty
time-fuse: you never can tell when you're going to get your own
fingers blown off! But tell me something, Guy. What was that tune you
whistled a moment ago, when Marsh came in with the news? It had a
vaguely familiar ring."
"Oh, that?" asked the operative, with a sheepishly guileless air. "It
was just a bit from an English musical comedy of two or three years
back, I think. It's got a silly-sounding name--something like 'There's
a Boat Sails on Saturday--'"
Blaine's wry smile broadened to a grin of genuine appreciation, and
rising, he clapped the young man heartily on the shoulder.
"Right you are, Guy! And it won't be our job to search the sailing
lists. You may not always be able to see what lies under your nose,
but your perspective is not bad. Hell has only one fury worse than a
woman scorned, that I know of, and that is a woman fooled! We'll let
it go at that!"
The evening had already grown late, but that eventful day was not to
end without one more brief scene of vital import. Marsh presently
reappeared, this time bearing a card.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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