“Did you hear any unusual sound after making the connection, as if the telephone had been dropped, or as if something occurred?”
“I did not. I will try to get the party.”
“Do so.”
Nick waited and heard the operator cry repeatedly:
“Hello! Hello! Hello!”
No answer—still no answer.
No sound so much as suggesting what had occurred, what fateful deed had been done, or what horror might then be in progress, whence the mysterious telephone call had come.
The stillness over the wire was like that of death itself.
Had death, indeed, stilled the voice heard for a fleeting moment by the detective, the voice that had uttered his name, as if a cry of appeal had been cut short when it left the lips of the speaker?
The operator spoke again.