"
Silence for a bit, then the wire was busy.
"What's that? Captain Cronin? What about him? Let me speak to
him."
Shirley was alert as a cat. Van Cleft was too dazed to
understand his sudden move, as the criminologist caught up the
receiver, and placed his palm for an instant over the mouthpiece.
"Ask him to say it again--that you didn't understand." Shirley
removed his hand, and obeyed. Shirley held the receiver to his
ear, as the young man spoke. Then he heard these curious words:
"You poor simp, you'd better get that family doctor of yours to
give you some ear medicine, and stop wasting time with the death
certificate. I told you that Cronin was over in Bellevue
Hospital with a fractured skull. Unless you drop this
investigating, you'll get one, too. Ta, ta! Old top!"
The receiver was hung up quickly at the other end of the line.
Shirley gave a quick call for "Information," and after several
minutes learned that the call came from a drug store pay-station
in Jersey City!
The melodious tones were unmistakably those of the speaker who
had used the wire from faraway Brooklyn where the house had been
burned down! It was a human impossibility for any one to have
covered the distance between the two points in this brief time,
except in an aeroplane!
Van Cleft wondered dumbly at his companion's excitement.
Pages:
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33