number of the license, although I
suppose it would have been of little use if they had. When you look
those things up you generally find that the car has been stolen from
some respectable citizen."

"Tierney and I arrived just after the patrolmen got back to the
building, and the man in front told us about it. I was puzzled over
just what the game was until we heard the shooting up here. Then I
guessed that they had only drawn off the policemen so as to let
someone get in, so Tierney and I beat it up the stairs as fast as we
could. When you took so long to answer the door, we thought you were
gone, sure."

"Well, the little rat did have me wondering for a few minutes,"
admitted Marsh. "If he had really come to kill me I think he could
have got me, all right. But the fact was, he just came to warn me,
and intended to use his gun only as a last resort. Under such
circumstances, if you can only keep them talking long enough, they
get careless. You can see what happened to 'Baldy' because he stayed
too long."

"He'll have a long stay somewhere else now," commented Tierney,
cheerfully.

"And we'll make him talk same more before we get through with him,"
declared Morgan.

"There is one thing I want to ask of you, Morgan," said Marsh. "Get
him out of here as quietly as you can, and don't let the news get
into the papers. We don't want the people who sent him to know
exactly what has happened. Just let them wonder for a day or two."

"I get your point," answered Morgan. He then went to the telephone
and called the patrol wagon, impressing upon the man at the other
end of the wire, the need for secrecy, and instructing him to have
the patrol drive up the alley back of the house.

"Now," said Morgan, as he turned from the telephone, "I suppose you
want to hear about the information I was to get for you."

"Yes," replied Marsh. "Were you able to get it?"

"All that's worth knowing," returned Morgan. "I turned Tierney loose
on this man Nolan, and looked up Hunt myself. You can dismiss Nolan
from the case at once. He has a job as chauffeur with a big business
man in Milwaukee, and hasn't been in Chicago for a month. At one
o'clock last Tuesday morning he was bringing this man and his wife
home from an affair at the man's club. Someone simply impersonated
Nolan."

"Now, about Hunt. I found that he started to work for Merton as his
confidential secretary about five years ago. Merton apparently
thought a good deal of him