stance which, though it apparently had no connection with
the case, yet which Mr. Rack was unwilling to dismiss wholly from his
mind, was the fact that a few days earlier Mr. Kull had purchased from a
neighbor and shipped to a middle western city a fine Scotch collie. The
dog was greatly attached to the automobile, and had sometimes been
allowed to ride. This simple fact in itself was not important; but the
purchase of the dog, apparently for the mere purpose of giving the
animal away, was not in keeping with Mr. Kull's usual disposition.

From so trifling a cause for suspicion the detective was unwilling to
make even a hint as to what was in his mind. All he could do, and the
thing he did do, was to place a watch upon Adam Kull while secretly he
made a thorough search of the man's record.

Among other things it was found that, as a young man, Kull had been a
party to a transaction by which he and his mother obtained a strange
hold upon a wealthy farmer near Griffin, Henry Peek by name. The woman
married Mr. Peek but they soon separated. To be free of the woman and
her son, Mr. Peek had entered into a written contract involving the
payment of a large sum of money at once, and the further stipulation
that, should the wife survive the husband, she should receive the entire
Peek estate. If, on the other hand, Mr. Peek survived his one-time wife,
the estate should ultimately go to his heirs alone, and no heir of hers
should be considered as having any claim whatever upon the property. The
bargain seemed a very good one for the woman as she was much younger
than Mr. Peek.

Years passed. Mrs. Peek, who had resumed her former name, Kull, lived
with her only son and they had eventually settled in Harkville. Here the
man was engaged in real estate, a number of shady deals being credited
to him in that connection.

Within a few months of the present time, the mother, though but little
past middle age, had been stricken by an incurable disease. The son
could not have failed to remember that, unless she survived his former
step-father, the rich Peek estate would not descend to him.

Matters were at this pass when Detective Rack obtained his first
extended knowledge of Kull, following his investigation of the
disappearance of the automobile the latter had owned. Several weeks
slipped by and, as the man under scrutiny had made no movement which
would in any way strengthen suspicion against him, the watching of his
going and his