"Good Lawd, Mis' Bella—we done been raided!" burst out the maid as the door flew wholly open.
Halsey staggered back. "A detective!" he exclaimed.
"Oh, what shall I do!" wailed Mrs. Noble. "My husband will never forgive me if this becomes known."
Bella was as calm as a good player with a royal straight flush.
"I've caught you at last," fairly hissed Drummond. "And you, too, Mrs. Dunlap. Watson, I overheard something about some stock. Let me see it. I think it will interest International Surety as well as Exporters and Manufacturers."
Through the still open door Constance had darted across the hall to her apartment.
"Not so fast," cried Drummond. "You can't escape. The front door is guarded. You can't get out."
She was gone, but a moment later emerged from the darkness of her rooms, carrying the oak box.
As she set it down on the card table, no one said a word. Deliberately she opened the box, disclosing two spools of wire inside. To the machine she attached several head pieces such as a telephone operator wears. She turned a switch and the wire began to unroll from one spool and wind up on the other again.
A voice, or rather voices, seemed to come from the box itself. It was uncanny.