Arthur Somers Roche

“ Pelham. I never hoped to enlist a gentleman. I must do with such cattle as Beagle, here.” He looked scornfully at his chief lieutenant. “I want a man of imagination, of genius such as you have shown you possess. I need such a man, Mr. Pelham. Your rash infatuation for a girl has ruined you. Your world can know you no longer. Will you come to my world?”
“Turn criminal?” Pelham stared at him. ”

“ Standing in the doorway that led from the entrance hall to the little drawing room, her hands gripping the sides of the door frame, the dancer glanced over her shoulder at the servant. “I'm afraid,” she whispered.
The buxom cook peered into the room.
“I know you warned me,” Pelham was saying, “and I also warned you. I've had enough of this nonsense.”
“And I've had enough of your tricks,” growled Tryon. “If my niece hasn't sense enough to protect her reputation, I'll protect it for her. You get out of this room, out of this apartment, out of this building!” ”

“ Gray-skinned, gray-haired, and even dressed in gray, that impression of neutrality, of having no further concern with life, was banished once one looked fairly into the smoldering depths of the sunken gray eyes. ”

“ Tryon not doing business together,” said Dickenson.
“Oh, that.” Pelham's voice was bitter. “Yes; I've quit the Tryon agency.”
State of Maine people do not make good servants. They maintain an independence of spirit that sometimes irks their employers. “I think you're makin' a fool play.” declared Dickinson.
Pelham's face hardened, but the ringing of the telephone postponed the reply to impertinence. Dickenson crossef the room and answered the call. “It's for you, Mr. Pelham,” he said. “Mr. Tryon talking.” ”

“ He ought not to telephone you from police headquarters. If one hint ever got out that you had a man in the detective bureau——”
“Kernan didn't telephone from there. Go on,” said the Gray Ghost.
“I sent Zensler out to round up the maid of Miss Legendre,” Beagle continued. “Zensler posed as a reporter. The maid was loyal to her mistress until he flashed a century note. Then she loosened up. She said that she had overhead Tryon scolding her mistress for accepting Pelham's attentions. In the dressing room last night the maid heard Pelham say that Tryon would get into trouble if he wasn't careful. ”

“ Usually you're here, battering at my door, before the audience has departed. it seems to me that your love's grown cold.”
“On the contrary,” grinned Pelham, “it grows more torrid every day. Doesn't it embolden me to defy your silly old uncle?”
The girl cast a quick glance at her maid. But the maid, busied with putting away costumes, apparently was paying no attention. “What does Uncle Jerry say today?” the dancer asked.
”The usual thing,” replied Pelham. His tone was hard. “He'll find himself in a lot of trouble If he isn't careful.” ”

“ THE Gray Ghost smiled once more. “You have my permission to attend to Tryon whenever you choose. As for Pelham—go on,” he ordered peremptorily.
”Well, he was followed to the apartment of Stacy Legendre last night. Also Tryon was followed there. He arrived before Pelham and the girl. About ten minutes after Pelham arrived he beat it from the house in a hurry. He went home, but he came out again in five minutes, carrying a suit case. He took a taxi to the Grand Central; he paid his driver, went into the station, and came out a little later in another car. ”

“ I sent Elsie Landon to call on Dr. Wetherby. You see, I'd had Ferguson go to Miss Legendre's apartment house. He couldn't get to the cook—the police were there—but he got in touch with the night telephone operator and learned that Wetherby had been sent for immediately after the shooting.
“Elsie acquired an obscure ailment that necessitated a long examination. She found out that Tryon was shot through the left lung, and probably will die.
“I went myself to Pelham's apartment. ”

“ He was a criminal, differing only in degree from his master, yet he adhered to the fiction of master and servant even when there was no other person present.
The master, having read the last of the newspapers, ordered the servant to admit a man who waited outside. ”

“ Pelham. Politicians maintain that this would be a wise move.
Dickenson, the former Maine guide who was now Pelham's confidential man of all work, entered the room.
“Read the Star, Dickenson,” Pelham said, handing the editorial to the lean woodsman.
Dickenson read it slowly. Bewildered. he stared at his employer. “It ain't true, is it?” he demanded.
“That I'm to be police commissioner? The job hasn't been offered me,” replied Pelham. ”