“I don’t know, sir. I don’t know––”
“Keep cool! Answer me!” The Detective clutched the butler’s shoulder with a vise-grip.
“Answer me,” he repeated. “What happened? What is the matter—over there?”
“I don’t––”
“None of that! Answer! Answer!”
“The telephone company, sir. The telephone people rang me ... they rang me hup hon the downstairs ’phone, sir. They said ... she said ... the chief-loidy said for me to ’ang the receiver hup hon the Gramercy ’ill ’ook, sir. The 9763 one, sir.”
“Which one is that—the library?”
“It his, sir!”
“Go on! Go on! Go on!”
“I goes back where I ’ad left the second-man, sir, by the door, sir, as you’d ordered, sir. I knocks ’ard on the door.”