“Do you think he might have been going some place down among the wharves at that hour, and running till his heart burst to get there on time?” Dennis’ pipe had gone out in his excitement and he laid it on the tray with a tremulous hand. “Was it blackmail? Did he think whoever was waiting would kill him if he didn’t show up? Mac, what manner of man was he? Fine quality clothes and cheap shoes, elegant jewelry and a gold-filled watch that could be bought on the installment plan! The cigar case was real pigskin, you tell me, but—what kind of cigars was in it?”
“Denny, you’ve rung the bell again, even though you don’t know it!” McCarty gazed for a moment in affectionate but unflattering surprise at his old friend. “The cigars were Coronas, and there’s no better nor more costly made! For all the clothes were of grand quality, they didn’t fit him; they’d been carefully altered but they’d been made in the beginning for a taller and thinner man—and they’d had good wear. Only the cheap shoes were new, and though the links and pin were as rich-looking as any swell would sport they were fakes, even if I wouldn’t give Taggart the satisfaction of telling him so! He’d too close a shave, remember, and his hands showed no signs of hard work; don’t you make anything at all out of it?”
“He could wear the clothes, though not the shoes, of another man—smoke his cigars, copy his jewelry, keep his own hands soft—? No, there’s no sense to it, whatever!” Dennis shook his head slowly. “You’ve something up your sleeve, but what makes you figure so much on the close shave of him? Why was that number ‘four’ on the other side of the tag with his initials on the key-ring? Did you look to see if the same letters was in his hat?”
“It had dropped down into the gutter when he fell.” McCarty had refrained for the time being from mentioning his errand after the missing headgear. “Did I say that ‘N. Q. M.’ were the dead man’s initials? I fitted a made-up name to them in joke when Taggart was so sure about it, but it might be an address as well. You’ve known this town as long and as well as me, Denny; did you ever hear of the New Queen’s Mall?”
“That I do,” said Denny. “You mean that one block running through from the Park to the next avenue, with gates shutting it in at both ends, as though the families living in the houses on the two sides of the street was too good to mix with the rest of the world? It’s right in the heart of the millionaires’ part of town, with the swellest society all around, and ’twas named after some grand place in London, wasn’t it?”
McCarty nodded.
“The Queen’s Mall. The Burminsters came from there and they owned most of the property on both sides of this block here. The great corner mansion on the north side nearest the Park is where they live, and they moved heaven and earth to close in the street with gates, the families in the other houses liking the idea fine. The newspapers put up a holler about the street being a public thoroughfare and the whole business being contrary to democracy, but that little bunch of millionaires had their way. That was long before ever you and me came to this country, Denny, but the inspector told me about it, and it’s brought up even now when there’s occasion for it at some election time or other—”
“Number Four, New Queen’s Mall!” Dennis interrupted witheringly as he emptied and pocketed his cold pipe and rose with a glance at the clock. “’Tis twenty minutes to eleven, and you sit there giving me a history of New York! What are we waiting for?”
CHAPTER II
NUMBER FOUR
At the corner the two self-appointed investigators found a taxi and Dennis, for once taking the lead, insisted upon engaging it. McCarty had protested loudly against this excursion, but the recounting of the strange event at the waterfront had aroused all the sternly-repressed longing to be back in the game once more, and although he was bitterly resentful of the new order of things at headquarters since his day the fascination of the mystery itself had gripped him with irresistible force. Not for worlds would he have admitted it to his companion, however, and as they rattled eastward through the Park he grumbled: