nute--I did!"

"Where?"

"At the R.L. and T. railroad crossing, sir. I didn't see nor hear no
train there, and almost run into it. It was a freight, and travelin'
kinder slow. I seen the lights of the caboose and stopped the car right
close to the track. I wasn't stopped more'n fifteen or twenty seconds,
and just as soon as the train got by, I went on."

"But you did stand still for a few seconds?"

"Yes, sir."

"If any one had got into or out of the cab right there, would you have
heard them?"

"I don't know that I would. I was frozen stiff, like I told you, sir; and
I wasn't thinking of nothin' like that. Besides, the train was makin' a
noise; an' me not havin' my thoughts on nothin' but how cold I was, an'
how far I had to drive, I mos' prob'ly wouldn't have noticed--although I
might have."

"Looks to me," chimed in Leverage, "as if that's where the shift must
have taken place; though it beats me--"

Carroll lighted a cigarette. Of the three men, he was the only one who
seemed impervious to the cold. Leverage and the taxi-driver were both
shivering as if with the ague. Carroll, an enormous overcoat snuggled
about his neck, his hands thrust deep into his pockets, his boyish face
set with interest, seemed perfectly comfortable. As a matter of fact, the
unique circumstances surrounding the murder had so interested him that he
had quite forgotten the weather.

"Obviously," he said to Leverage, "it's up to us to find out whether the
people at this house here expected a visitor."

"You said it, David; but I haven't any doubt it was a plant, a
fake address."

"I think so, too."

"Wait here." The chief started for the dark little house. "I'll ask 'em."

Three minutes later Leverage was back.

"Said nothing doing," he imparted laconically. "No one expected--no one
away who would be coming back--and then wanted to know who in thunder I
was. They almost dropped dead when I told 'em. No question about it, that
address was a stall. This dame had something up her sleeve, and took care
to see that your taxi man was given a long drive so she'd have plenty of
time to croak Warren."

"Then you think she met him by arrangement, chief?"

"Looks so to me. Only thing is, where did he get in?"

"That's what is going to interest us for some time to come, I'm afraid.
And now suppose we go back to town? I'll drive my car; I'll keep behind
you and Walters, here. You ride together in his cab."

Walters clambered to his s