. So they starts right in to get rid of Maggie. I hadn't been in
the house a day before I'd doped that out. I knew there was a plot on to
do Maggie."

"You don't say!" says I. "How?"

"Slow poison, I expect," says Ellery. "In her coffee, maybe. Anyway, it
had begun to work. Maggie was mopin' around. I found her cryin'. I
spotted Jake Zosco right off. You can tell just by lookin' at him that
he's that kind. Besides, he acts suspicious. Always prowlin' around
restless. Then there's the butler. He's in it, too. I caught him and
Jake whisperin' together. I don't know how many more. Some of the maids,
maybe, and most likely a few men on the outside. They might be plannin'
to stage a jewel robbery with a double murder and lay it all onto
unknown burglars. Get me?"

"Uh-huh!" says I. "But how much have you got on Brother Jake? And how
did you come to get him locked up here?"

"Oh, I had the goods on Jake, all right," says Ellery. "After I saw him
confabbin' with that crook butler the other night I shadows him
constant. I was on his trail when he sneaks down here after dinner. I
saw him unlock the lodge house. I heard him fumblin' around inside. Then
I slips up and locks him in. Half an hour later down comes the butler
and two others of the gang, but when they sees me they beats it. I
expect they'd try to rescue him, if they thought he was there. And they
may find out any minute."

"That's right," says I. "Lucky I came out just as I did. There's only
one thing to do."

"What's that?" asks Ellery.

"Lug Jake up to the house, confront him with the butler, tell 'em
they're both pinched, and give 'em the third degree," says I. "You'll
see. One or the other will break down and tell the whole plot."

"Say!" gasps Ellery. "Wouldn't that be slick! Just the way they do in
the movie dramas, eh?"

I had to smother a chuckle when that came out, for I'd already
recognized some of the symptoms of a motion picture mind while Ellery
was sketchin' out this wild tale.

"Go to the movies much down in Shelby?" I asks.

"Most every night," says Ellery. "I used to even before Maggie got into
the game. Begun goin' when I was 'leven. At first I was strong for this
Wild West stuff, but no more. Give me a good crook drama with a big
punch in every reel. They're showin' some corkers lately. I've seen 'em
about all. That's how I come to get wise to this plot of Jake Zosco's.
Come on! Got your wrist irons ready for him?"

"Oh, I never use t