Judith, wrestling with a refractory hook, shook her head. “Thanks, but Maud’s clever fingers are needed to disentangle this mess,” she said. “Do you mind running downstairs and telling her to come to me? The bell must be out of order.”
“I’ll have her here in a jiffy,” Richards answered, but, once in the hall, his footsteps lagged.
No one was in sight, and getting down on his knees he felt along the telephone wire which ran on top of the wall board. The same fine wire was fastened in place alongside it. Step by step Richards traced the two wires running side by side until they crossed the door-jamb of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hale’s bedroom. They were old-fashioned in their ideas and occupied the same room.
Richards tapped, first gently, then more loudly, on the partly opened door and getting no response, he walked inside. It was a large room filled with handsome mahogany furniture, the carved four-post bedstead taking up the greater space. But Richards had eyes for but one object standing on a table in an obscure corner of the room, with a soft typewriter cover partly concealing the receivers and earpieces from view. Walking over to it, Richards lifted the cover and examined the instrument. When he laid the cover down his expression indicated incredulity and a dawning horror.
With what object had Robert Hale or his wife, or both, placed a dictograph in Judith’s boudoir?
CHAPTER XVI
LINKS IN THE CHAIN
Anna, the waitress, answered Robert Hale’s persistent ring of the front bell with all the speed her strained ankle would permit. At sight of her, Hale restrained an outburst of temper and with a mumbled, “Thanks,” stamped past her into the central hall of his home.
“Is my brother in the house, Anna?” he inquired, tossing down his overcoat and hat on the first chair he came to.
“Yes, sir, I believe so.” Anna closed the front door as an icy current of air blew her becoming cap at right angles. “His hat and cane are here on the coat stand, and I heard him ask Mr. Latimer to go to his room with him as they left the dining room after luncheon.”
Hale paused on his way to the library. “Who lunched here?”