“Nothing at all,” Gale replied nervously. “I can’t understand how it happened.”
“I reckon I’ve got a pretty clear idea how it happened, all right,” growled Hodgins. “Somebody sent the old gent an infernal machine. The pieces of it are lying on the floor of the office now. And it ain’t hard to guess who that somebody was, eh?”
“No, indeed,” young Gale replied. “My father has only one enemy—at least, only one who would be capable of such a cowardly attack. That cad, Carroll, is responsible for this, as sure as you’re standing here, chief! I demand that you place him under arrest at once!”
“You won’t have to ask that of me twice,” Hodgins replied grimly. “My fingers are just itching to get hold of that big stiff’s coat collar. But first let us go in and look the ground over, and see if we can’t find a little more evidence against him. Suspicion ain’t evidence, you know.”
A more affectionate son might have preferred to accompany the ambulance to the hospital, in order to be present, or near at hand, while the surgeons made a thorough examination of his father’s injuries; but this course did not seem to suggest itself to Gale.
Eagerly he followed the chief of police up the plaster-strewn stairway to the wrecked private office of the proprietor of the Chronicle.
They examined the fragments of the exploded infernal machine, and found there some clews which caused Gale to turn excitedly to Hodgins.
“It’s Carroll, sure enough!” he cried triumphantly. “We’ve got enough evidence here to send him to the chair, if the governor dies, and to prison for life if he doesn’t. Come on, chief; let’s march to the Bulletin office and place him under arrest.”
The chief of police took the precaution of providing himself with an escort of four stalwart members of his force before he went to arrest the proprietor of the Bulletin.
Not possessing the sunny, placid disposition of his friend Hawley, Carroll’s indignation took the form of physical resistance when he learned the intentions of his visitors concerning himself. Hodgins and his posse had[Pg 35] to send for reënforcements before they could get him out of the building.