Leaving the newspaper men disappointed and dissatisfied, the investigator rang the bell and was admitted. In the hall, pulling on his gloves, was Osborne.
"Hello!" exclaimed the latter. "So you thought you'd have a try, too, eh?"
The big man's tone showed that he was none too well pleased with his own visit; he jerked at his gloves viciously, and his brow was creased with vexation. And seeing that the other was disposed to do nothing more than nod, he went on:
"Well, you'll have to have a lot better luck than I've had, to have any at all. Miss Vale, it seems, is a young lady who knows very well how to say nothing. I've been here something like an hour and have put her through a regular third degree; but I've had my labor for my pains, as the saying is. She has told me nothing except her opinion of the newspapers and the police."
"Miss Vale will see you, sir," said the man servant, returning.
"And so you've given it up?" queried the investigator of Osborne.
The big headquarters man shrugged his shoulders.
"Hardly," said he. "I've set a time on the thing. We scarcely like to go to extremes, as you perhaps know; but unless a clean breast of the matter is made, as far as the party knows," modifying his language because of the listening servant, "the same party will know what the inside of a cell is like by this time to-morrow."
"You really mean to make an arrest?"
"If we are forced to—yes."