Lefty’s eyes brightened. “By Jove!” he exclaimed. “That’s a good idea, Jack. I shouldn’t wonder if he did. At least it’ll be worth trying. He ought to be on duty now.”
Without further delay, he arose and walked over to the desk. Though he did not know the fellow’s name, he remembered perfectly what he looked like, and the clerk recognized his description at once.
“Oh, you mean George Miller? Why, the proprietor fired him this morning, Mr. Locke. He was stewed last night, and had a holdover this morning. He’s left the hotel, and I don’t know where you can find him.”
Lefty turned from the desk, with a shrug. “That’s settled,” he thought disconsolately. “Why didn’t I think of it before? I suppose I wasn’t thinking of anything this morning, though.”
As he walked back to where the newspaper man sat, he saw Bert Elgin crossing the lobby toward the door. For an instant he was moved to brace the fellow then and there and accuse him of playing that dirty trick the night before. Almost as quickly, however, he realized how futile that would be. Though Elgin was the only man with a motive strong enough to make him suspected, Lefty had no shred of proof against him.
“Let him go,” the latter muttered frowningly. “I haven’t got anything on him—yet. I’ll be hanged if I don’t think he was at the bottom of it, though, and if I don’t dig up the truth somehow, I am a bonehead.”
CHAPTER XIV
BERT ELGIN’S LUCK
Bert Elgin was decidedly a ladies’ man. A pretty face in any of the front-rows of the grandstand never escaped his attention, and, no matter in what part of the country his team was playing, he seemed to have an almost uncanny faculty of scraping an acquaintance with the best-looking girl in town.
His teammates growled and grumbled enviously, making sarcastic references to luck and bluff and working the rah-rah racket to perfection, but Elgin remained undisturbed by their comments. There was no questioning the fact that he could be very charming when he chose to exert himself. He had a ready tongue, the knack of subtle flattery, and knew how to utilize the glamour which most girls throw about a prominent athlete who has had a college education.