"Certainly. If you had inquired for me of the agent here, you would have certainly found me."
"That's exactly what I did do, and I did not find you; so now," and Mr. Elliston laughed at the perplexed look on the detective's face.
The actions and words of this man were indeed a puzzle to Dyke Darrel.
"Harper, I want to ask you a plain question——"
"And you want a categorical answer, Mr. Darrel," interrupted the New Yorker with a laugh.
"I do."
"Go ahead."
"Weren't you in Black Hollow last night?"
"Certainly not. I was with a friend at least sixty miles away, near Chicago."
"Can you prove this?"