he record and put it away with the others in the
grip. Now he lit a cigarette and puffed several rings of smoke before
answering.

"Van, it must be wonderful to be twins."

"This is no night for joking," petulantly, observed the nervous young
man. "I want the girl silenced--"

"She won't open her mouth after I tell her some things. It may entertain
you to know, Van, that while you were getting such good advice from Mr.
Grimsby on this wire, I was talking to the real Mr. Grimsby on his own
wire: he said I was his first caller in more than an hour. So, I gave
him some good advice, which wouldn't interest you. After this don't
believe what the telephone tells."

"Who was I speaking with?"

"The most brilliant criminal it has ever been my pleasure to run
across," and his eyes snapped with joy, the huntsman instinct rising to
the surface at last, "I will call him the voice until I know his better
name. He is the most scientific crook of the age."

"What do you know about criminals?" was the incredulous question.

"I'll know a hundred times as much as I do now, when I know all about
this one, Van. You'd better have Cleary send an armed guard along with
you, and get home for a good rest. Get a man who can drive a car, and
bring back the empty auto three houses away from your residence: it will
bear looking into! I'm going up to have a revival meeting with that girl
now, for I am convinced that she is not a whit more implicated in the
conception or execution of this crime than you are. Good-night."

Van Cleft left the house, with a pitying shake of the head. He was
not quite certain that he had done wisely, after all, in bringing his
eccentric friend into the affair. He little reckoned how much more
peculiarly Montague Shirley was to act for the remainder of the night.

CHAPTER VI. AN EXPERIMENT WITH THE "MOVIES"

The cross-examination of Polly Marion resulted in little advantage. She
had known of the sudden departure of two other songbirds, well equipped
with funds for the land of Somewhere Else. Their absence had been the
subject of some quiet jesting among the dragon flies who flitted over
the pond of pleasure. A suggestion, from some unrecalled source, that
their disappearance had been connected with the deaths of the two
aged suitors was revitalized in her memory by the words of the elderly
detective. Familiar with the strange life of this jeweled half-world
Shirley's keenness brought forth nothing to co