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Page 34
Halsey clenched his fist. It was evident that he did not intend to
quit, no matter what the odds against him.
Constance thought of the silent figure of Drummond at the other
table--watching, watching. She felt sure that it was to him that the
Surety Company had turned over the work of shadowing Halsey. Day
after day, probably, the unobtrusive detective had been trailing
Halsey from the moment he left his apartment until the time when he
returned, if he did return. There was nothing of his goings and
comings that was not already an open book to them. Of what use was
it, then, for Halsey to fight!
It was a situation such as she delighted in. She had made up her
mind. She would help Haddon Halsey to beat the law.
Already it seemed as if he knew that their positions had been
reversed. He had started to warn her; she now was saving him.
Yet even then he showed the better side of his nature.
"There is some one else, Mrs. Dunlap," he remarked earnestly, "who
needs your help even more than I do."
It had cost him something to say that. He had not been able to
accept her help, even under false pretenses. Eagerly he watched to
see whether jealousy of the other woman played any part with her.
"I understand," she said with a hasty glance at her watch and a
covert look at Drummond. "Let us go. If we are to win we must keep
our heads clear. I shall see you to-morrow."
For hours during the rest of the night Constance tossed fitfully in
half sleep, thinking over the problem she had assumed.
How was she to get at the inside truth of what was going on across
the hall? That was the first question.
In her perplexity, she rose and looked out of the window at the now
lightening gray of the courtyard. There dangled the LeMar telephone
wire, only a few feet from her own window.
Suddenly an idea flashed over her. In her leisure she had read much
and thought more. She recalled having heard of a machine that just
fitted her needs.
As soon as she was likely to find places of business open Constance
started out on her search. It was early in the forenoon before she
returned, successful. The machine which she had had in mind proved
to be an oak box, perhaps eighteen inches long, by half the width,
and a foot deep. On its face it bore a little dial. Inside there
appeared a fine wire on a spool which unwound gradually by
clockwork, and, after passing through a peculiar small arrangement,
was wound up on another spool. Flexible silk-covered copper wires
led from the box.
Carefully Constance reached across the dizzy intervening space, and
drew in the slack LeMar telephone wires. With every care she cut
into them as if she were making an extension, and attached the wires
from the box.
Perhaps half an hour later the door buzzer sounded. Constance could
scarcely restrain her surprise as Mrs. Lansing Noble stepped in
quickly and shut the door herself.
"I don't want her to know I'm here," she whispered, nodding across
the hall.
"Won't you take off your things?" asked Constance cordially.
"No, I can't stay," returned her visitor nervously, pausing.
Constance wondered why she had come. Was she, too, trying to warn a
newcomer against the place!
She said nothing, but now that the effort had been made and the
little woman had gone actually so far, she felt the reaction. She
sank down into an easy chair and rested her pretty head on her
delicately gloved hand.
"Oh, Mrs. Dunlap," she began convulsively, "I hope you will pardon
an entire stranger for breaking in on you so informally--but--but I
can't--I can't help it. I must tell some one."
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