“Joseph,� he said, “Chick or Patsy will communicate with you before very long. When either of them do that, I want you to direct for me that one of them be at the house to reply to a telephone call from me at one o’clock.�
“Yes, sir,� came the reply.
“If by any chance either should find it impossible to be there at one, I will call again at two and at three, and so on. You understand?�
“Yes, sir.�
“That’s all.�
When he returned to the car he noticed that Lynne regarded him rather strangely, as if the man had not exactly liked the idea of that telephone message; but Lynne only said:
“It did not take you long, Mr. Carter.�
“No; it concerned merely an instruction I wished to send to one of my assistants. And now we will resume our conversation. You were abroad nearly all of last summer, were you not, Mr. Lynne? I seem to remember seeing such a report in one of the papers.�
“Yes. I was away the entire summer, as a matter of fact.�
“Your daughter did not accompany you?�