THE MAN AND THE HOUR;
Or, Sheridan Keene’s Clever Artifice.
By ALDEN F. BRADSHAW.
CHAPTER I.
THE DEATH OF JACOB MOORE.
“Chief Inspector Watts, I want you to do me a favor.”
Chief Watts met the request with a rather encouraging smile.
“I have not forgotten, Mr. French, that I am considerably your debtor in that line,” he genially rejoined, with some significance.
“Well, it is not on that account, Chief Watts, that I appeal to you at just this time. I never charge up favors against my friends. But I am confronted just now by a case which, while I am still ignorant of the immediate particulars, I fear will require exceedingly shrewd and delicate handling.”
The expression on the face of the chief inspector changed slightly.
“Is it a criminal case, Mr. French?” he asked quietly.
“It is a case of murder, Chief Watts, or so, at least, it is here stated,” replied Mr. Hamilton French, one of the brightest of Boston’s legal lights and a noted criminal lawyer. “Here is a telegram I received less than ten minutes ago.”