d he liked you. Poor little dog! Poor little dog!"

Tenderly they bore him out, the colonel insisting that no one touch him
with ungloved hands, and a little later Chet was quietly buried.

"But what are you going to do about that watch--and all that it means?"
asked Jack Young, later, when he was about to depart to take up the
shadowing of Harry King.

"I'm going to see how it's made and try to learn whether or not Darcy
was aware of its deadly nature. If he was--"

The colonel did not finish.

"Well, I'll get on my way," said Jack, after a pause. "I'll keep in
touch with you, in case you need me."

"And don't lose sight of Harry King," was the parting admonition.
"Something just as unexpected as this may turn up in his case," and the
colonel motioned to the watch.

Left to himself, the detective looked at the timepiece on his table,
now silent in its tissue wrapping. The needle, which under the
magnifying glass was shown to be hollow, probably drawing the poison
from some receptacle inside the case, had slipped back out of sight
when the pressure was removed from the rim.

"The watch of death!" mused the colonel. "I must see how you are made
inside, and I think I'd better have a professional perform an autopsy
on you. I'll send for Kettridge. He knows all about watches, though I
question if he ever saw one like this."

The colonel was about to use his telephone when it rang and, answering
it, he was told that another visitor wished to see him.

"Who is it?" he asked the clerk downstairs.

"Mr. Aaron Grafton."

"Send him up."

Grafton was plainly nervous as he entered the room; and the colonel,
had he not been a man of experience, might have allowed this
nervousness to influence his judgment, and bring into too much
prominence the first suspicions the detective had felt regarding this
man.

"Ah, Mr. Grafton, you wish to see me?"

"Only for a moment, Colonel Ashley. I don't like to call on you thus
openly, for it might give rise to all sorts of questions, but--"

"Oh, don't let that worry you. I'm a detective, and known as such now.
And you, as the owner of a large department store, where shop-lifting
and other crimes may be committed any day, are often in need of the
services of detectives, I should say."

"I am, but--"

"Well, don't worry. If any one knows of your coming to me they will
imagine you wish to consult me about something connected with your
store. So don't let that influ