he
other fellar three times."

"Mr. Curtis is an American," Steingall explained.

"Well, he doesn't talk like one, anyhow," pronounced young New York--in
this instance, of a pronounced Jewish type--which is perhaps the most
dogmatic juvenility extant.

Then Curtis entered. He glanced around, and seemed to be gratified by
the discovery that the hotel had lost its inquisitive crowd. He did
not realize that every newspaper office in New York was alive with
conjecture of which he was the chief figure, and that telegraph and
telephone were carrying his name and fame across the length and breadth
of the country.

"Hello!" he said, hailing Steingall affably, "you here still? Has
anything turned up with regard to those scoundrels and their
automobile?"

"Not a word--about them," said the detective.

The purveyor of cigars and news was positively awe-stricken. He was
aware of Steingall's repute as the "man with the microscopic eye," and
he fully expected that the "sleuth's" penetrating organ had already
discerned the word "murderer" branded on Curtis's shirt front.

"What time will you want me in the morning?" went on Curtis, looking in
the direction of the office. He was really thinking about the mislaid
key; not for an instant did he imagine that by that simple gesture he
had almost eradicated from Steingall's mind the germ of doubt which
events had certainly conspired to plant there.

"I want you now," came the somewhat startling answer.

"Eh, why?"

"Some friends of yours are anxious to see you. They are in the private
office over there," and Steingall thrust out his chin in the indicative
manner which the Romans used to call _annuens_.

"Oh, Howard Devar, I suppose. But who else?"

"Come along, Mr. Curtis. You can stand a pleasant surprise, I am
sure," and, with that, the detective led the way across the hall,
leaving the youthful Jew in a maze of conflicting emotions, for,
according to all the rules of the game as played in the dime novel, the
tec' should have sprung on his prey like a tiger. Another person whose
nervous system received a shock was the super-clerk. He, like the boy,
knew of the network of suspicion which had closed on Curtis during the
past two hours, and he had watched the cordial meeting between the two
men with something akin to stupefaction.

But neither of these onlookers had grasped the really essential fact
that Steingall did not say one word as to the hue and cry which
r