“It’s worth an experiment,” returned the foxy detective, and on the strength of his decision he waited in my office until George Rodman returned to his.
I didn’t know, at the time, what argument Hudson used to get Rodman to do it, but his foxiness prevailed and, obeying orders, I found myself watching the shadow of George Rodman’s head on Amos Gately’s glass door, as Hudson engaged his suspect in animated conversation.
Of course, the scene of the crime was not re-enacted, there was merely the shadowed picture of the two men, but Hudson managed to have Rodman conspicuously shadowed in various positions and postures.
And after it was over, and Hudson, back in my office, asked me for my verdict, I was obliged to say:
“Mr. Hudson, if that is not the man I saw quarreling with Mr. Gately, it is his exact counterpart! Were it a less grave occasion, I should not hesitate to swear that it is the same man.”
“That’s enough, Mr. Brice,” and Foxy Jim Hudson went back to Headquarters with his report.
CHAPTER X
Penny Wise and Zizi
And so it was at this stage of affairs that Pennington Wise got into the game. He willingly agreed to take up the case, for the mystery of it appealed to him strongly, and by a stroke of good luck he was not otherwise engaged.
He had promised to call at Miss Raynor’s, and as she had asked me to be present also, I went up there, reaching the house before Wise did.
“What’s he like?” Olive inquired of me.