“Searching it.”
“Well,” stormed Barnes, “I’ll go up there and if he don’t unlock me I’ll push him off.”
He dashed out of the room and up the stairs.
“Funny thing where that man got to, Mr. Gladwin,” mused the Central Office man, with a keen glance from under his heavy eyebrows.
“Yes, those chaps are clever, aren’t they?” returned the young man with affected unconcern. “I suppose he’s miles away by this time.”
“I don’t think he’s gone very far,” rejoined Kearney, his voice bristling with suspicion. “He couldn’t 264 have got away without the men outside seeing him. We’ve got the block surrounded now. He’s here in this house, Mr. Gladwin––I guess you know that.”
“I don’t know anything of the kind,” Gladwin denied, with a trifle too much emphasis. A policeman appeared in the doorway and Kearney called to him, “Ryan, I thought you were on the roof.”
“Sergeant Burke sent me down,” responded Ryan. “We’ve got the roofs covered both way.”
“Did you see the man you put the bracelets on?” asked Kearney.
“No,” replied Ryan, “but I heard a lot of noise going up one of the back stairways.”