ed the second booth. The hole came through,
underneath the slot-box. It had been drilled in order to make a
connection between the two telephones. He found splinters and sawdust
at his feet. He backed out and stood perplexed. There was no way of
finding out just what sort of connection had been made between the two
booths. All evidence of wires had been taken down. Only an expert could
give an answer to the new riddle. Drew recalled Westlake as he rushed
to the subway-platform.

He found the vice-president busy, with a score of men waiting in the
outer room of the telephone company's office. The secretary-in-charge
hurried in with his card and his urgent request for three minutes'
important matter which could not well wait.

Drew, however, was forced to wait seven minutes by his watch. He chafed
at the delay. He crossed his legs at least once each leaden minute. He
feared that the trail was getting cold. Twice he rose, as if to go.
Each time the secretary had indicated patience by an arching of her
brows and a jerk of her thumb toward the ground-glass door.

"Send in Drew!" boomed as the door opened and let out the caller. Drew
strode in with his notes in his hand.

"Just a minute, Westlake," he said, dropping into a chair and leaning
over the desk behind which sat a good-natured official of the superior
order. "A minute! I'm in a jam! What d'ye make of this?"

Drew related his discovery in the booths of the Grand Central. He went
right to the point. He explained the auger-hole, the shavings, and the
fact that it was the same set of booths to which the call had been sent
from the prison, over the time Stockbridge had been slain.

Westlake listened with dawning light. He leaned back as Drew finished
talking. He smiled. He thrust his thumbs under his vest. "You're a
hardworking man, Drew," he said, "but you didn't get it all. Do you
remember the third call that I gave you this morning?--the one when the
chief-operator at Gramercy Hill put the howler on? It was from the same
booths you just mentioned!"

"What?"

"It certainly was. There's no use looking at the record. The number was
9844 Gramercy Hill. In other words we have the evidence to show that a
thin, whispering voice called up Stockbridge from one booth in the
Grand Central at the same time the prison was connected to the adjacent
booth."

"For the love of Mike!" said Drew.

"Yes--your case grows interesting, Chief. You've got a lot of tangled
leads an