iment king--and Anthony Fry was the owner
of Fry's Imperial Liniment; there was a link as of solid steel, made of
liniment only, yet utterly unbreakable!

What did it mean? What _could_ it mean?

Hitchin leaned back for an instant and closed his eyes, giving his
mighty brain the freest rein of its existence, urging it with every
fiber in him to hit upon the correct theory.

And then, eyes opening, it almost seemed that he had hit upon it! These
two, Dalton and Fry, were doubtless associated in business, whatever the
supposed rivalry. Was it not thinkable that the devilish messes of one
or the other had ruined the health of the Prentiss boy? Was it not
possible that Anthony, luring him to his home, had been trying to buy
him off from a threatened suit--get a quit-claim or something of that
kind? For that matter, could it be anything else? The boy had refused
and--big business had wiped out another individual!

He might well enough be wrong, but if wrong he were, why was Wilkins
taking the trunk straight into the premises of Theodore Dalton? He had
done that now, and now the gate had closed upon him, and Hobart Hitchin,
suddenly determined on the most spectacular act of his life, tapped his
driver on the shoulder.

"Go around to the front of this house--yes, the corner one!" he said,
and there was a little shake in his voice.

His path was clear enough. Anthony Fry would not seek to escape as yet;
they never did at this stage when they fancied the crime itself safely
out of the way. Anthony would be there when wanted--and single-handed,
Hobart Hitchin meant to take into custody the two most sensational
murderers of their generation!

It was a tremendous thing. By the time he had stepped up to the spacious
door of Theodore Dalton's home, the tremendousness of it had so overcome
Hobart Hitchin that he could not have reasoned out the two times two
multiplication table! He was for the time a man bereft of what most of
us consider senses, so that he walked straight past Bates and said:

"Mr. Dalton!"

"You're bringing word, sir?" Bates cried.

"I wish to see Mr. Dalton. He is at home," said Hitchin.

Bates considered for a moment and then nodded; it was no morning for
quibbling.

"In here, sir!" he said, pattering off quickly to Dalton's study.

He pattered out again as quickly, and Hobart Hitchin, having taken a
chair, rose from it at once and took to walking, brief-case still
clutched in his hand and an exalt