I’LL be cursed if I don’t think I ought to hire a real detective and put him onto the inside affairs in this office,” was Chief Mern’s ireful opinion after he had listened to Crowley and Miss Elsham when they reported in from the north country. They were voluble in their own behalf, but their talk was slippery, so the chief felt. They were also voluble in regard to Lida Kennard, but Mern found himself more than ever enmeshed in his guesswork about that mysterious young lady.
Crowley kept shifting off the topic onto his own prowess, patting himself on the breast and claiming all the credit for getting Latisan off his job.
Miss Elsham, on her part, kept lighting fresh cigarettes and was convincing on only one point: “No more wild men of the woods for me. Never again in the tall timber. I’ll do night and day shifts in the cafés if you ask me to. And I’ve got a knickerbocker suit that’s for sale!”
Mern had several interviews with the two, trying to understand.
When the blustering Crowley was present Miss Elsham allowed him to claim all the credit and made no protest.
Alone with Mern, she declared that Buck was a big bluff, but she was not especially clear in her reports on his methods.
“But what has become of Kennard?”
“I don’t know. Lynched, maybe. They were threatening to do it to Buck and me before we got away.”
One thing seemed to be true—Mern had a wire from Brophy in reply to an inquiry: Ward Latisan had gone away and was staying away.
And Rufus Craig, arriving in the city, telephoned the same information to the chief and promised to call around and settle.