“Indeed, no,” Orbit replied. “I gave strict orders and we can finish the set to-night.—Sir Philip held the amateur chess championship for Great Britain for five years.”
He added this to McCarty and then turned as Ching Lee appeared again and spoke to him once more in his native tongue. The butler advanced and placed in McCarty’s hands the bottle he had seen in Orbit’s room two nights before.
“Has it been uncorked, do you know, since ’twas found beside you?” McCarty regarded the contents critically, removed the cork himself for a cautious whiff. Hurriedly replacing it, he handed the bottle back to Ching Lee and rose.
“I don’t think so,” Orbit whipped out his handkerchief and pressed it to his nose. “I am susceptible to that odor, at any rate, since Wednesday night!—Sorry not to be of any greater help to you. I shall depend on you and the inspector to keep me informed of any developments that may arise.”
As McCarty trudged through the driving rain toward the east gate once more, he shook his head. Come night, it would be a week since Hughes had been done to death, and the end was not yet clear!
He made his way to the lunchroom on Third Avenue which he and Dennis had previously visited and in deference to the day ordered fried oysters. They were long in coming and he rested his elbows wearily on the table. Was he getting too old for the game, after all? In days gone by, when he was in harness, he’d have got to the truth long since. It had been a dog’s life in more ways than one, yet he regretted more than ever that he had left it and grown rusty....
All at once he straightened in his chair and sat staring at the cynical warning to “watch your hat and coat” on the wall before him as if the legend were wholly unfamiliar to him. The belated appearance of the waitress with the oysters roused him from his stupor and he rose hurriedly.
“Don’t want ’em!” he muttered thickly. “Gimme the check; I got to beat it!”
Spilling a dime onto the table he took the slip of pasteboard, paid for his untouched food at the cashier’s desk and went out as one in a dream. Once around the corner he seemed galvanized into life and set off briskly enough for the subway.
Twenty minutes later he presented himself at headquarters and after being closeted with the chief of the detective bureau for some little time he departed, armed with certain credentials for the main office of the telephone company.