“Could you see what she had been writing?”
“No, sir; I couldn’t.”
“Well, I won’t detain you any longer, Wilkins. Here’s the note for Miss Beatrice. By the way, were Mrs. Trevor and Mr. Clark good friends?”
“Not always, sir.” Then, seeing Dick’s surprise, Wilkins hastened to add: “Mrs. Trevor had a very quick temper. Many’s the time I’ve nearly given notice on account of her hasty way of finding fault. She and Mr. Clark were very thick, that is,” stumbling in his speech, “good friends like. Mr. Clark had eyes for nobody but Miss Beatrice, and he and Mrs. Trevor often had words over her. They had several nasty quarrels last month, sir. Is—is that all, sir?”
“Yes. I’m very much obliged to you, Wilkins,” replied Dick, heartily. “Good day.”
“Good day, sir,” answered Wilkins. He stopped for a moment on the other side of the door to scratch his head in perplexity. “He’s a rum cove, wonder what he’s up to.”
Dick wondered very much himself. It was a case of the blind leading the blind. If Clark was guilty, and certainly suspicion pointed his way, why should Beatrice hide the hat-pin? Above all, who had dropped the broken gold link in the Trevors’ front hall? More and more puzzled by the facts which he had elicited from the communicative Wilkins, he dressed with what speed he could, and, not waiting for breakfast, ran across to the corner drug store and rang up a taxi-cab. While waiting he telephoned to Peggy and then to Mrs. Curtis. Both of them told him they had never owned a chain of any description with such a coin attached to it.
The taxi-cab was not long in coming, and he was whirled away to the Treasury Department as rapidly as the speed laws of the District allowed. On his arrival there he went direct to the Secret Service Division, and on mentioning his name and errand he was at once taken to Chief Connor.
“I won’t take up a moment of your time, Chief,” explained Dick, as the two men sat down.
“Count de Smirnoff told me of your share in the capture of the three Italians on Saturday,” said the famous Secret Service man. “What can I do for you?”