“Who could have done it? What was the motive?”
“The motive was to put me on the retired list. Can’t you imagine who would want to do that?”
“The bank robbers!”
“Exactly. They have discovered that I am at work on the case, and they have tried to take time by the forelock and do for me. It isn’t the first time such a thing has happened, but it is the first time a telephone was ever used as a trap. That was rather clever.”
“I’m over my head, Nicholas; I can’t get next to you.”
“It was a put-up job to get me out of the way, chief. I was called into the telephone box by a man who told me I could call him the man from Montana. This fellow acknowledged that he had lured me there for the purpose of having me shot. That much he told me, and then his confederate in the court blazed away.”
“The audacity of it!” exclaimed the amazed officer.
“More proof that these bank robbers are old hands. Did you look around the court?”
“Yes, but I couldn’t find a trace of anyone who might have committed the outrage.”
“I hardly expected that you would. It was well planned.”