“We both spoke av the bells—and Mike towld me about a dancing in the moonlight he saw wanst in ould Ireland, when the fairies came out to howld their only ball—it was at this hour he seen it and lost his mind. Whin he found it again the beastly work had stopped and the fairies were gone.”
“Well, I guess it’s too late for me to do what I meant to. I won’t need you to-day, John. Sometime I may want your help.”
With these words Eric Darrell coolly turned and walked away. The Irishman looked after him quizzically.
“He’s an odd genius, but, d’ye know, I rather like the man. Just as if I don’t know where he’s gone. Hope he finds Mike Crotty on deck this fine day.”
CHAPTER IX
JOE’S SECRET
Mike Crotty was on deck. Eric readily found him.
The man was a stranger to him, but there is a mystic tie between the detectives and police in a great city—they work in harmony.
Soon the two men were conversing with the greatest freedom.
Crotty had often heard of Detective Darrell, and was only too glad to supply any information that lay in his power. He remembered meeting the hackman and spoke of the bells ringing out the midnight hour.
There could be no mistake.