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Page 24
"Ain't that like these book chaps?" Haggerty murmured. "T' go away
without turning off th' meter!"
The first thing Haggerty did was to scrutinize the desk which stood
near the center of the room. A film of dust lay upon it. Not a mark
anywhere. In fact, a quarter of an hour's examination proved to
Haggerty's mind that nothing in this room had been disturbed except the
poor old mummy. He concluded to leave that gruesome object where it
lay. Nobody but Crawford would know how to put him back in his box,
poor devil. Haggerty wondered if, after a thousand years, some one
would dig him up!
Through all the rooms on this floor he prowled, but found nothing. He
then turned his attention to the flight of stairs which led to the
servants' quarters. Upon the newel-post lay the fresh imprint of a
hand. Haggerty went up the stairs in bounds. There were nine rooms on
this floor, two connecting with baths. In one of these latter rooms he
saw a trunk, opened, its contents carelessly scattered about the floor.
One by one he examined the garments, his heart beating quickly. Not a
particle of dust on them; plenty of finger-prints on the trunk. It had
been opened this very night--by one familiar, either at first-hand or
by instruction. He had come for something in that trunk. What?
From garret to cellar, thirty rooms in all; nothing but the hand-print
on the newel-post and the opened trunk. Haggerty returned to the
museum, turned out all the lights except that on the desk, and sat down
on a rug so as not to disturb the dust on the chairs. The man might
return. It was certain that he, Haggerty, would come back on the
morrow. He was anxious to compare the thumb-print with the one he had
in his collection.
For what had the man come? Keep-sakes? Haggerty dearly wanted to
believe that the intruder was the one man he desired in his net; but he
refused to? listen to the insidious whisperings; he must have proof,
positive, absolute, incontestable. If it was Crawford's man Mason, it
was almost too good to be true; and he did not care to court ultimate
disappointment.
Proof, proof; but where? Why had the man not returned the clothes to
the trunk and shut it? What had alarmed him? Everything else
indicated the utmost caution. . . . A glint of light flashing and
winking from steel. Haggerty rose and went over to the window. He
picked up a bunch of keys, thirty or forty in all, on a ring, weighing
a good pound. The detective touched the throbbing bump and sensed a
moisture; blood. So this was the weapon? He weighed the keys on his
palm. A long time since he had seen a finer collection of skeleton
keys, thin and flat and thick and short, smooth and notched, each a gem
of its kind. Three or four ordinary keys were sandwiched in between,
and Haggerty inspected these curiously.
"H'm. Mebbe it's a hunch. Anyhow, I'll try it. Can't lose anything
trying."
He turned out the desk light and went down to the lower hall, his
pocket-lamp serving as guide. He unlatched the heavy door-chains,
opened the doors and closed them behind him. He inserted one of the
ordinary keys. It refused to work. He tried another. The door swung
open, easily.
"Now, then, come down out o' that!" growled a voice at the foot of the
steps. "Thought y'd be comin' out by-'n-by. No foolin' now, 'r I blow
a hole through ye!"
Haggerty wheeled quickly. "'S that you, Dorgan? Come up."
"Haggerty?" said the astonished patrolman. "An' Mitchell an' I've been
watchin' these lights fer an hour!"
"Some one's been here, though; so y' weren't wasting your time. I
climbed up th' fire-escape in th' alley an' got a nice biff on th' coco
for me pains. See any one running before y' saw th' lights?"
"Why, yes!"
"Ha! It's hard work t' get it int' your heads that when y' see a man
running at this time o' night, in a quiet side-street it's up t' you t'
ask him questions."
"Thought he was chasin' a cab."
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