earned that a criminal case was
something like a dusty roadway. Many tracks crossed and re-crossed
one another, becoming just a bewildering mass to the untrained eye.
In the present instance, the situation in the Atwood apartment had
queer aspects which seemed to connect it with the incident of the
night before. The suspicious points were not so glaringly apparent,
perhaps, as the circumstances which connected the man Marsh, but
they were there just the same. While the Atwood situation attracted
Morgan, he was inclined to believe that he had actually uncovered
some other situation; of a criminal nature, perhaps, but not
associated with his present investigations. To one unfamiliar with
crime, the incident of Marsh following the girl might have seemed to
form a connection, but Morgan realized that if there was anything
between the Atwoods and Marsh, the latter would hardly have been
secretly following Miss Atwood.

On the other hand, it was quite possible that a clever criminal, of
the type he now suspected Marsh to be, having successfully
accomplished one job, might have another in mind, which he thought
he could execute before forced to make his final getaway. Instead of
attributing this incident to a connection between the Atwoods and
Marsh, Morgan figured that it weighed somewhat in the Atwoods'
favor, while still further incriminating the man Marsh.

At this point in his reflections the telephone bell rang, and
answering it, Morgan heard Tierney's voice.

"I've just seen Murphy," reported Tierney. "He says that Marsh came
home about seven-thirty and has not been out since; unless he
slipped out the back door. This doesn't seem likely as there is
another man watching the rear. He don't know Marsh, but he would
find out before he let anyone go. Murphy says he has seen a shadow
pass the windows several times during the evening, and we are pretty
sure that Marsh is the only person in that flat."

"All right," replied Morgan. They exchanged good-byes, and Morgan
replaced the telephone on the tabouret.

Settling back into his chair once more, Morgan came to the
conclusion that one or more of Marsh's confederates of the night
before had simply been endeavoring to get information so as to warn
Marsh whether or not he was suspected. Morgan knew that, as usual,
he and Tierney had talked in guarded voices, so he felt confident
that little, if any, of their conversation had been overheard. It
was the anxiety of the perso