“She’s the one. They say the Phantom has a crush on her and that it was on her account he handed the Duke that wallop some months ago. She’s supposed——”
The Phantom, his face deathly white, clutched Pinto’s arm in a grip that made the policeman squirm. “What about Miss Hardwick?” he demanded hoarsely. “Has anything happened to her? Speak, man!”
Pinto freed his arm and gave him a searching look. “All I know is that she’s missing, and I thought mebbe you——”
“Missing?” echoed the Phantom sharply. “What do you mean? Speak up!”
In his excitement he did not see that the look of perplexity in Pinto’s eyes had given way to a cunning twinkle. In another moment the policeman had acted with a precision and a swiftness that indicated he was a far shrewder man that his looks led one to think. In an instant the pistol had been beaten from the Phantom’s numb hand and in the space of a few seconds a steel link was gyved around his wrist.
“There, Mr. Gray Phantom!” exclaimed the policeman with a triumphant chuckle. “I guess you won’t get away from me this time!”
The Phantom, at last sensing his danger, jumped to one side, but already the other link was fastened around the policeman’s wrist. Pinto’s words regarding Helen Hardwick had stunned him momentarily, and he had not seen his peril until it was too late. Now he was a prisoner, handcuffed to his captor!
“This is more like it!” exclaimed the policeman, kicking aside the pistol his prisoner had dropped and shoving his own weapon against the Phantom’s diaphragm. “I’ve had a hunch all along that, if you weren’t the Phantom himself, you were his alibi. I’m wise now, all right. You gave yourself away when I spoke the name of the moll. You turned white to the gills and almost jumped out of your shoes. Guess you forgot to play your rôle that time, Mr. Phantom. Granger, not being in love with the lady, wouldn’t have thrown a fit like that. Well, we’re off for the station. You can hand ’em the spiel you gave me, and see how much they believe of it.”
“Before we start, tell me what you know of Miss Hardwick,” pleaded the Phantom, for his own plight still seemed of secondary importance.
Pinto shrugged his shoulders. “She’s vamoosed; that’s all I know. Come along. Mebbe she’ll drop in and see you when you’re in jail.”