es, sir."

"My line--Belmont 2748--is out of order. Can you send an inspector up
at once?"

"I'll see, sir."

In a minute the reply came.

"Yes, we can send a man right up."

"One thing more--from where does the inspector start? The house is
closed, but I'll send my man along to go up with him."

There was a wait of a few minutes. Wilson almost held his breath. Then
came the answer:

"The inspector leaves from the central office. Have your man ask for
Mr. Riley."

"In twenty minutes?"

"Yes, sir."

Wilson went out and walked around the block. He had told a deliberate lie
and was perpetrating a downright fraud, but he felt no conscientious
scruples over it. It was only after he had exhausted every legitimate
method that he had resorted to this. When he came around to the
entrance door again he found a young man standing there with a tool bag
in his hand. He stepped up to him.

"This Mr. Riley?"

"Yes, sir."

"I was to tell you to go on right out to the house. The man is
there."

"All right, sir."

Wilson started on, but stopped to look into the drugstore window. The
man went down the street to the car corner. Wilson again circled the
block and waited until he saw Riley board the car on the front
platform. He kept out of sight until the car had almost passed him and
then swung on to the rear. The stratagem was simplicity itself.

At the end of a ten-minute ride the inspector swung off and at the
next corner Wilson followed. It was easy enough to keep the man in
sight, and apparently he himself had escaped detection. The inspector
approached a modest looking house setting a bit back from the road
and, going to the front door, rang the bell. At the end of perhaps
three minutes he rang again. At the end of another five he rang a
third time. The curtains were down in the front windows, but that was
not uncommon in hot June days. The inspector went to the rear. In a
few minutes he came back. He tried the door once more and then,
apparently bewildered, came out. He hung around for some ten minutes
more, and then, returning to the corner, took the first car back.

It seemed clear enough that the occupants of the house were gone, but
Wilson waited a few minutes longer, unwilling to accept the
possibilities this suggested. He even went up and tried the bell
himself. A servant from the neighboring house called across to him:

"They all drove off in a carriage an hour ago, sir," she said.

"How many of th