and thus had one cigar left
over to substitute for the one he had taken from the end.

He plumped the suspicious-looking weed into his pocket and closed the
box.

Eagerly glancing at the letters found among the dead man's possessions,
he found a note from Dorothy. It had come from a town in
Massachusetts. The date was over six weeks old.

It was addressed, "Dear Uncle John," and, in a girlish way, informed
him she had recently been married to a "splendid, brilliant young man,
named Fairfax," whom she trusted her uncle would admire. They were off
on their honeymoon, it added, but she hoped they would not be long
away, for they both looked forward with pleasure to seeing him soon.

It might have been part of her trickery; he could not tell.

The envelope was missing. Where Hardy had been at the time of
receiving the note was not revealed. The picture postal-card that Pike
had mentioned was also there. It, too, apparently, had come from
Dorothy, and had been sent direct to Hickwood.

Once more returning to the box of cigars, Garrison took it up and
turned it around in his hand. On the back, to his great delight, he
discovered a rubber-stamp legend, which was nothing more or less than a
cheap advertisement of the dealer who had sold the cigars.

He was one Isaac Blum, of an uptown address on Amsterdam Avenue, New
York, dealer in stationery, novelties, and smokers' articles. Garrison
jotted down the name and address, together with the brand of the
cigars, and was just about to rise and close the drawer when the
coroner returned.

"I shall have to go down to New York this morning," said Garrison. "I
owe you many thanks."

"Oh, that's all right," Mr. Pike responded. "If you're goin' to try to
catch fifteen, you'd better git a move. She's whistled for the station
just above."

Garrison hastened away. He was presently whirling back to Dorothy.

His "shadow," with his bruised hand gloved, was just behind him in the
car.

CHAPTER X

A COMPLICATION

With ample time in which to wonder what Dorothy's summons might imply,
Garrison naturally found himself in the dark, despite his utmost
efforts at deduction.

He welcomed the chance thus made possible to behold her again so soon,
after what he had so recently discovered, and yet he almost dreaded the
necessity of ferreting out all possible facts concerning her actions
and motives for the past six weeks, the better to work up his case.
Wherever it l