ed the steps, moved
down the walk to the street, and strode swiftly away. For perhaps three
seconds he had been held clearly in the glare of Carroll's headlights.

When the detective spoke, it was with an effort to control his tone, to
make his question casual.

"Did you see that man, Miss Rogers?"

"Yes."

"Do you know him?"

"Goodness me, no! He's been here before, though."

Carroll stopped his car at the curb. He assisted Evelyn to the ground.
Then he made a strange request.

"I wonder, Miss Rogers, whether you'd allow me to call on you some
evening?"

Evelyn's eyes popped open with the marvel of it.

"You mean you want to come and call on _me_? Some _evening_?"

"If you will allow me."

"Allow you? Why, David Carroll--I think you're
simply--simply--_grandiloquent_! When will you come?"

"If your sister will permit--"

"Bother Sis! To-morrow night?"

"Yes, to-morrow night."

She executed a few exuberant dance steps.

"Oh, what'll the girls say when I tell 'em?"

Carroll climbed thoughtfully back into his car. He saw Evelyn enter the
house, but his thoughts were not with her. He was thinking of the man who
had just left.

Carroll never forgot faces, and he had recognized the visitor.

The man was William Barker, former valet to Roland Warren!

CHAPTER XI

LOOSE ENDS

Carroll's forehead was seamed with thought as he turned his car townward
and sent it hurtling through the frosty air. He drove mechanically,
scarcely knowing what he was doing.

He was frankly puzzled, enormously surprised and not a little startled.
The afternoon had been at first amusing, then interesting--then utterly
boring. Evelyn's chatter had put him in a state of mental coma--a
lethargy from which he had been rudely aroused at sight of William Barker
leaving the residence of Evelyn Rogers' sister.

There was something sinisterly significant in what he had seen. Not for
a moment did he entertain the idea that Barker had been seeking
employment. Negativing that possibility was the cold statement of the
disinterested young girl that Barker had been there before, and, too,
the fact that Barker was leaving from the front door instead of through
the servant's door.

Obviously, then, Barker's mission had little to do with the matter of
domestic employment. And now that he had stumbled upon something
tangible--something definite--certain salient facts which had come to him
through the haze of girlish chatter began