"For the first time," said Pendleton, as the door closed upon Allan Morris, "I can feel sorry for him. To lose a girl like Edyth Vale is indeed a calamity. Think of the courage she's shown—of what she was willing to do. Why, Kirk, she's one in ten thousand."
But Ashton-Kirk only nodded; he had arisen upon the departure of Morris, and was now drawing on a pair of gloves. The splendid qualities of Miss Vale apparently had little appeal for him at that moment.
"Are you ready?" he asked, in a business-like way.
"Ready?" repeated Pendleton, surprised.
"To be sure. We can scarcely call this case complete until something has been done in the matter of Locke."
"That's so. But, somehow, I had the notion that your men had already attended to him."
"I always prefer to finish my work in my own way," said the investigator. "Osborne, as soon as he heard of Locke, through Sagon, wanted to take up the trail. But I convinced him that he'd better leave it to me."
Pendleton clapped on his hat.
"I'm with you," said he, "but where do you expect to find him?"
Ashton-Kirk rang for Stumph and ordered the car; then he replied: