“You kissed her on the forehead and fled in precisely the same manner,” interrupted the detective slowly and impressively. And the burglar, in a burst of vehemence, replied:
“By Heaven, I did that very thing, and it was the biggest haul I ever made in my life.”
Without another word he wheeled on his heel and went out of the house.
CHAPTER XXVII.
GETTING IN ONE DEAL AHEAD.
When the detective was left alone he sat for many moments turning over in his mind the story he had just heard, and in doing so he recalled a circumstance which had been dormant in his recollection for a long time.
He remembered the occasion when Mercedes’ maid, Sarah Kearney, had been interviewed by him in that same room, and he recalled the fact that he had accused her at the time of keeping back a part of her story.
The circumstances which had followed upon that occasion had developed so rapidly that he had not found it necessary to question her further, but now, in the light of certain ideas that had come to him through the story told him by Tom Morgan, he believed that he could make a shrewd guess as to what it was she had refrained from telling at that time.
By the time he had finished his cogitations it was midnight, but he had determined upon the course he intended to pursue.
He turned off the lights and ascended to his own room, where he found his assistants, who were waiting to welcome him home.
“I shall have use for all three of you in the morning,” he said. “I want all of you to remain in the house to-morrow until you hear from me, and then to report when, where and how I shall direct, with the least possible delay. Do you happen to know, Chick, if any of the Dantons are in town?”