Walker of the Secret ServicePost, Melville Davisson
General
Walker of the Secret Service
Post, Melville Davisson
Secret service -- Fiction
But it was not a doctor that Maggie was after.
It was an opportunity to call up the office of the express company
in Canada and tell them to ship the bag back to this city. If the
doctor were in, she would consult him about Mooney and ask to use
his telephone, and if he were not in she would ask the same
privilege, saying that she would return when the doctor should be at
home.
As it happened the doctor was not in the house, but the person in
charge of his office permitted Maggie to use the telephone. She
called up the express company in Canada and ordered the bag
reshipped. She left with the servant money to pay for the telephone
call and went out.
It was a very clever device because it did not occur to the
detective, who was keeping her in sight, that it was worth while to
go into the doctor’s office to inquire what she was doing there.
What she would be doing there was too obvious.
He therefore contented himself with shadowing her back to the
lodging house and keeping the place under his eye from the curtained
window behind the barber shop.
Maggie remained with the sick man that night. She endeavored in vain
to persuade him to have a doctor or to permit her to undertake such
simple remedies as might be at hand. Mooney knew he was dying. He
had no faith whatever in anything that might be done for him.
He was only concerned that Maggie should carry out his directions.
In the morning she again left the house; and was again shadowed as
every one was shadowed who came into it or went out of it. This time
Maggie went to the nearest drug store—about three blocks distant, at
the corner of a street—went in, spoke to the clerk and then went
around the counter into the back part of the store.
The detective who was watching her from the opposite side of the
street naturally concluded she was having some remedy prepared for
the sick man.
What Maggie had in fact done was to say to the clerk that she was
packing up some articles, which she had to move, and that she wanted
to get some empty boxes. The boxes were in the rear of the store and
the clerk told her she could go through and pick out what she
wished. She went through, went out the back door, down a neighboring
alley and took a taxicab to the railway station.
The detective waited in vain for her to appear. When finally she did
not come out he went in and discovered what had happened; too late
to overtake her.
Maggie went to the station, got the traveling bag, put it into the
taxicab and set about to carry out the remainder of Mooney’s
directions.
The detective called up headquarters and gave the alarm. The police
at once went about spreading the usual net for Maggie and then they
determined to arrest Mooney. They were now convinced that the man’s
illness was a pretense; and, a few minutes later, the detective and
three officers suddenly burst into the room where Mooney sat in bed
propped up with pillows, gasping for breath, in the closing stages
of pneumonia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account