they not?" queried Morgan,
casually, as he noted down in his book what Cole had recently told
him.

"Not so far as I know. In fact, it hardly could be possible,
inasmuch as Mr. Ames and his wife went abroad before Mr. Marsh
arrived in Chicago."

CHAPTER VI

THE CABLE FROM LONDON

After leaving the real estate office, Morgan walked south on
Broadway to Wilson Avenue and entered the Western Union office. Here
he sent a short cable to London. Leaving his address so that the
reply could be forwarded to him, he went across the street and took
an elevated train for home.

After dinner Morgan settled down in his favorite chair to await
Tierney, who had telephoned that he would be there in a little
while. As he was filling his pipe for the second time, the bell
rang. Morgan opened the door and Tierney bustled in. The cheerful
smile, the snappy step, and the careless motion with which Tierney
shot his hat into a nearby chair, told Morgan as plainly as words,
that his partner brought worth while information. Tierney pulled an
easy chair up to the table, and Morgan pushed the tobacco jar and an
extra pipe over to him. Tierney filled the pipe, lighted up, and
settling back, grinned at Morgan.

"I may have exceeded orders, but I've sure got some dope on that
guy, Marsh. You told me to find out what I could about Atwood. I
visited various stores in the neighborhood which a family was likely
to patronize. No one knew the name. After I had stopped in a cigar
store, and found that his name was not in the telephone directory, I
figured that there was nothing more I could do along that line until
I'd talked things over with you. So I decided to hang around in
sight of the house and watch developments."

"At a quarter to three a young woman came out, walked down to
Lawrence Avenue and stood on the corner, apparently waiting for a
motor bus. As she did not look like anyone I had seen in the house,
I gave her the once-over."

"Was she about medium height, slender, with blonde hair and dark
blue eyes?" questioned Morgan.

"Well, I didn't get close enough to gaze fondly into her eyes," said
Tierney, "but the rest of your description fits all right. Do you
know who she is?"

"Probably Miss Atwood," Morgan explained, "daughter of the tenant in
the flat across the hall. In the future it will do no harm to keep
one eye on her, Tierney."

"I kept both eyes on her today, Morgan, and that's the way I got the
dope I did."