“Not yet, but it isn’t safe to declare anything impossible in our twentieth century. This navigation of the air will make miraculous advancements in the next ten years. Well,” abruptly added the caller, “if the coast is clear, I must bid you good night.”
“When shall I see you again?” asked Harvey.
“Will you return to Chesterton to-morrow?”
“Is it advisable?”
“I see no objection to your doing so. If you do, and I am here, we may signal each other as before. I’ll raise my hat and scratch my head as notice that I wish to have a talk with you in your room, and you will do the same with me if necessary. Please keep your seat.”
Harvey saw the dim figure move across the room like a shadow. Pendar waited two or three minutes with his hand on the knob, as if he had heard something, though the listening youth did not detect the slightest sound. Then the door opened as noiselessly as before and he vanished into the hall, leaving the same dead quiet behind him.
Harvey waited some time before preparing for bed. Then he gave expression to his impatience with himself:
“He got everything I knew about this business from me, and I didn’t worm a single fact from him. I meant to ask his opinion of the wrecking of my machine, how father learned so early of it, what course Pendar means to follow, and lots of other things, but I know no more than before he came into the room. There’s one thing certain, he understands his business through and through, and I don’t know the a-b-c of it.”
CHAPTER XXIV.
ON THE TRAIL OF THE BLACK HANDERS.
Simmons Pendar had the reputation of being one of the best officers in the detective service. Several of his exploits proved that he possessed a brilliant mind, was quick in reading the vaguest clues and marvelously successful in following them up. It is not my purpose to explain by what subtle means he convinced himself that the kidnappers of little Grace Hastings had their headquarters in the extensive wilderness to the westward of the country town of Chesterton. Had he confessed the truth he would have admitted that a trifling occurrence, one of those insignificant incidents which figure oftener than is believed in important matters, gave him the key. Being human like the rest of us, he made his mistakes now and then, but felt absolutely sure he had not blundered in the present instance.