Jennings followed like a shadow, taking the bucket.
No sooner had they gone than Clutching Hand stealthily came from behind the portieres.
One of the maids was sweeping in the hall as Dan went toward the window, about to wash it.
"I wonder whether I locked these windows?" muttered Jennings, pausing in the hallway. "I guess I'd better make sure."
He had taken only a step toward the library again, when Dan watchfully caught sight of him. It would never do to have Jennings snooping around there now. Quick action was necessary. Dan knocked over a costly Sevres vase.
"There—clumsy—see what you've done!" berated Jennings, starting to pick up the pieces.
Dan had acted his part well and promptly. In the library, Clutching Hand was busily engaged at that moment beside the secret panel searching for the spring that released it. He ran his finger along the woodwork, pausing here and there without succeeding.
"Confound it!" he muttered, searching feverishly.
. . . . . . . .
Kennedy, having made the arrangements with the telephone company by which he had a clear wire from the Dodge house to his laboratory, had rejoined me there and was putting on the finishing touches to his installation of the vocaphone.