The men with the shovels were piling out of the second car and he saw that they carried in addition enormous sooty baskets. His eyes turned wonderingly to McCarty as the inspector hurried up.
“All set, Mac! The boys are posted all around the walls. What do you want done?”
“Open that coal chute first!” McCarty pointed to the square iron plate like a trap-door in the center of the side court, over which Max was still hovering. “Then send your men down in Orbit’s cellar to dig like hell! There’s thirty tons to be moved by the ten of them in an hour and a thousand dollars from Mr. Goddard to the guy that takes out the last shovelful. Go to it!”
Ching Lee had appeared in the front door of the Orbit house and Jean at the side one, while André peered from the kitchen window. All at once the houseman was brushed aside and Orbit strode out.
“What’s the meaning of this?” he demanded.
“We’re going to move your coal, Mr. Orbit,—the coal that was put in so quick the very hour that Horace Goddard disappeared!” McCarty replied. He turned abruptly to the group who were lifting the cover of the chute. As it rose and then fell back ringing on the pavement, a long-drawn howl broke upon the air; Max, tense and quivering, was gazing down into the aperture and McCarty motioned toward him.
“’Twas him and not me got the hunch first, inspector. ’Twas the lad’s pal, here—Max!”
CHAPTER XXI
THE BLACK PYRE
“Good God!” Orbit exclaimed in horrified accents. “You don’t mean that the little fellow tumbled down the chute! That he was buried beneath the coal!—Goddard, my old friend, what can I say to you! Surely this is only a vague supposition, a last resort! It would be too dreadful, too pitiful!”
Goddard’s face worked but he was unable to reply and Orbit turned to the men who, with baskets and shovels, were filing around the rear of the house.