It was not Louie at the lodge — that was why the murderous look was missing. It must be the Filipinos brother — perhaps his twin.
Stuart remembered the clock on the mantel — the clock that was never wrong! The lights of the house, visible from the gate! The flat tire on the car!
The plane had headed south after having New York. At night, Stuart had not known the direction was wrong. Mayo had spoken the truth when he said they were two hundred and forty miles from New York; but it was two hundred and forty miles in the wrong direction!
The call to the real Louie in the afternoon had been misleading. The fake Louie had said that the phone at the Virginia lodge was out of order. A prearranged plan — to prevent Stuart from calling the Inn!
It suddenly dawned upon Stuart that he was nearly five hundred miles from where he was supposed to be! Up in Massachusetts, Harry Vincent would be waiting for him.
Benson and Grady were there, too, planning some outrage. Who was to be their victim?
The answer came to Stuart.
Paul Hawthorne!
The man's fears of Sherwood Mayo were well grounded. The millionaire was in league with the assassins!
That was why Louie, the Filipino, had sought to kill Stuart! He had thought him to be Hawthorne. Mayo wanted the real-estate man to die a sudden death. It would have been explainable, with Mayo absent, and Hawthorne caught in the act of burglary!