CHAPTER XVII. — THE VOICE IN THE TELEPHONE
Edestone waited. He thought he heard, or rather he felt, a vibration as if someone were moving in the next booth. He tried the door again, but found that it held fast.
He was about to signal the switchboard operator and tell him to come and open up the booth, when an, “Are you there, Mr. Edestone?” came to him from across the wire, and caused him for the moment to forget the refractory door.
“Hello!” he answered. “Yes; I am Mr. Edestone. Who is this?”
The voice, instead of replying directly, spoke as if to another person with an aside. “Mr. Edestone is on the wire.”
A moment, and then a second voice spoke. “Are you there, Mr. Edestone?”
It was not the voice of his friend, and he answered a trifle impatiently: “Yes. Who are you? Are you speaking for the Marquis of Lindenberry?”
“No, I am not,” came the reply. “And I must apologize for having used his name.”