H. Bedford-Jones

“ He preferred to postpone his talk with the girl until he had Burlington off his hands.
"Well, I'm in good and deep," he reflected ruefully, biting the end from a cigar and settling down. "Now let's get cleared up. My Enid is probably named Mary Palmer, and appears to be a woman thief whom Osgood is after. Osgood is locked up in Mathews' shed and therefore may be eliminated as a factor. But what about Mathews? If the worst comes to the worst, I can hire a launch and skip out with Enid—or whatever her name is—and get home and wait for arrest. ”

“ Another crisis was coming from a source which Quentin little suspected, however. Before breakfast was half over, a waiter brought him in a note which he tore open with a word of apology to the others. It was a very brief and curt request that he visit the office. Wondering what was up now, he excused himself, and went out to the desk, finding there the clerk with whom Osgood had been talking on the previous day. The clerk nodded at him and led him into the interior office.
"Doctor," he said challengingly, "you left a package here for that bull, Osgood, last night. ”

“ The delicate irony of forcing Burlington to help him out. made him chuckle again, but he longed for Mathews to show up that the tangle might be complete. Certainly this girl had been confident in her appeal to Mathews, and Quentin wondered if every one who came into contact with her was to be drawn into some wild imbroglio. Osgood had certainly suffered therefor, and just at present Burlington seemed to be in for future trouble also! ”

“ She can't have got very far without being seen."
Quentin nodded, thinking rapidly. He might as well accompany Burlington and keep him occupied in the quest, since there really was an Enid Elsmere, and since the physician was plainly in no little mental distress over the disappearance. Also, he determined to probe Burlington's mind and make sure of his ground on the heiress question before he committed himself to any definite break with the other. But first he must telephone the girl and let her know why he could not return immediately. ”

“ She merely slipped out alone, got a man in the street to help her on the car, and that was an end of it. Her friends wanted to call in detectives and all that sort of tiling, but I happened to find the man who had helped her, and that made all straight. ”