y--why, Jake wouldn't hurt a
fly."

"Tell what you saw, Ellery," I prompts.

"I heard 'em plottin'," says Ellery. "Anyway, I saw Jake and the butler
whisperin' on the sly. And they planned to meet down at the lodge with
the others. I think that dago chauffeur was one. But I foiled 'em. I
followed Jake when he sneaked into the lodge house and locked him in.
Then I wrote to the chief detective at Headquarters and they sent out
this sleuth to help me round 'em up." He finishes by wavin' at me
triumphant.

And you might know that would get a chuckle out of Mr. Robert. "Oh,
yes!" says he. "Detective Sergeant Torchy!"

Meanwhile Andres Zosco is starin' from one to the other of us and
scratchin' his head puzzled. "I can't get a word of sense out of it
all," says he. "Not a word. Jake, let's hear from you. Where have you
been since night before last after dinner?"

Jake pries himself loose from the billowy embrace and advances sheepish.
"Why--why," says he, "I was locked in that fool lodge house."

"You were, eh?" says Zosco. "But how did that happen? What did you go in
there for?"

"Aw, if you must know, Andy, it--it was pinochle," he growls. "It ain't
a crime, is it, a little game?"

"What about the butler, though, and the others?" insists Zosco.

"Why," says Jake, "they was goin' to be in it, too. Can't play pinochle
alone, can you? And in a place like this where there's nothing goin' on
but silly billiards, or that bridge auction, a feller's gotta find some
amusement, ain't he? Saginaw they comes to the house 'most every
night--Hoffmeyer and Raditz and----"

"Yes, I know," breaks in Zosco. "So that was the plot, was it, Ellery?"

Ellery registers scorn. "Huh!" says he. "Don't let him put over any such
fish tale on you. Ask him about the slow poison in Maggie's coffee, and
stealin' the jewels, and--and all the rest."

"Why, Ellery!" gasps Mrs. Zosco.

"Didn't I catch you snifflin'?" demands Ellery. "And ain't you been
mopin' around?"

"Oh!" says she. "But that was before Andy had promised to let me play
the lead in his new eight-reel feature, 'The Singed Moth.' I've been
chipper enough since, haven't I, Andy, dear?"

"Slow poison!" echoes Zosco. "Jewel stealing! Murder plots! Boy, where
did you get such stuff in your head?"

But Ellery can only drop his chin and scrape his toe.

"I expect I can clear up that mystery," says I. "As a movie fan Ellery
is an ace."

And then it was Zosco's turn to stare. I