cross the toes. I'd noticed that even while he was shootin' at
me. It struck me that it would be a good idea to look over his
quarters in the basement. Shibo has one human weakness. He's a
devotee of the moving pictures. Nearly every night he takes in a show
on Curtis Street. The Chief lent me a man, an' last night we went
through his room at the Paradox. We found there a flashlight, a
bandanna handkerchief with holes cut in it for the eyes, an' in the
mattress two thousand dollars in big bills. We left them where we
found them, for we didn't want to alarm Shibo."

The janitor looked at him without emotion. "You plenty devil man," he
said.

"We hadn't proved yet that Shibo was goin' it alone," Kirby went on,
paying no attention to the interruption. "Some one might be usin' him
as a tool. Horikawa's confession clears that up."

Kirby handed to the Chief of Police the sheets of paper found in the
apartment where the valet was killed. Attached to these by a clip was
the translation. The Chief read this last aloud.

Horikawa, according to the confession, had been in Cunningham's rooms
sponging and pressing a suit of clothes when the promoter came home on
the afternoon of the day of his death. Through a half-open door he had
seen his master open his pocket-book and count a big roll of bills.
The figures on the outside one showed that it was a treasury note for
fifty dollars. The valet had told Shibo later and they had talked it
over, but with no thought in Horikawa's mind of robbery.

He was helping Shibo fix a window screen at the end of the hall that
evening when they saw the Hulls come out of Cunningham's apartment.
Something furtive in their manner struck the valet's attention. It was
in the line of his duties to drop in and ask whether the promoter's
clothes needed any attention for the next day. He discovered after he
was in the living-room that Shibo was at his heels. They found
Cunningham trussed up to a chair in the smaller room. He was
unconscious, evidently from a blow in the head.

The first impulse of Horikawa had been to free him and carry him to the
bedroom. But Shibo interfered. He pushed his hand into the pocket of
the smoking-jacket and drew out a pocket-book. It bulged with bills.
In two sentences Shibo sketched a plan of operations. They would steal
the money and lay the blame for it on the Hulls. Cunningham's own
testimony would convict the fat man and his wife. The evidenc