tchin signaled it to wait for him; and then, ever so
charily, he thrust forward his eagle eyes and directed their merciless
beam through the side panel of the glass. Hobart Hitchin all but lost
his self-control and laughed excitedly, for there, just down the block,
Anthony's personal servant was lugging a wardrobe trunk to the curb.

Ah! And he planned to use the safer taxicab, apparently, rather than the
truck; and it seemed to Hobart Hitchin that the driver knew his full
errand and demanded his share in advance, because Wilkins handed him
money. After that, without effort, because David Prentiss had been light
and slender in life, Wilkins took his ghastly burden into the back of
the cab and drove away.

But Hobart Hitchin, the relentless, was just twenty yards behind, and
his driver, spurred by a ten-dollar bill, bent forward and watched every
turn of the wheels as he followed. Thus they left the region of the
Lasande--and since we all have our personal dreams, it was right enough
for Hobart Hitchin to sit back and indulge his own.

As a millionaire now and then makes himself part and parcel of the local
fire-department, following faithfully to every blaze, answering every
alarm, so Hobart Hitchin, with a patrimony that rendered real work
absurd, dreamed of the day when he should be recognized as the most
eminent private expert in crime these great United States have ever
held.

Mistily, he had been able time and time again to visualize himself,
spectacles and all, surrounded by perturbed policemen who had come to
the end of their rope in crime detection, who listened respectfully
while he expounded the elements of the particular case in hand. But the
mists were almost gone now; this brilliant morning, for the very first
time, Hobart Hitchin had picked off a live one.

Yes, and it grew more and more live every second, for instead of heading
downtown, and trying--as Hobart Hitchin had fully expected--to ship the
trunk by express to some out-of-town point, Wilkins had made his way to
West End Avenue!

This in itself was very curious; it did not even suggest that Wilkins
was headed out of town with the remains; and it did not even hint at the
astounding thing which followed, several blocks farther uptown! As the
taxi stopped at Theodore Dalton's side gate, Hitchin all but fell from
his cab as he craned forward!

By some lucky accident, he knew that house, and knew, in a general way,
of its owner. This was the lin