Improbably enough, he did fall asleep right there, wedged between the sooty chimney wall and Ashton Sanborn’s shoulder. He was lost in the dreamless depths of exhaustion when a hand pressed his arm.
“Gee,” muttered Bill, “where am I? Oh, yes—is it twelve o’clock, Mr. Davis?”
The detective patted his arm lightly. “Yes, Bill, it’s exactly midnight. And Sanborn will do in the future, you know.”
The way down proved much easier than the ascent. Five minutes later they were standing in the dark library. Silently Sanborn went to the broken window and very slowly and carefully drew up the sash. Then he thrust his head outside, made sure that no one was about and nodded to Bill just behind him. They slid over the sill, dropped to the ground, and soon skirted the flower beds and reached comparative safety beneath the elms.
“Well! I’m sure glad we’re out of that dive!” sighed Bill. “Professor Fanely is the perfect host, I don’t think! What’s the next move? Get Osceola?”
“Yes, we must get him out of the lodge. I first thought of going to the nearest phone and calling in the Greenwich police. But Fanely seems to learn of our every move almost before we make it. He’s probably got someone watching police headquarters in Greenwich, and by the time enough men were rounded up to make the raid effective, Kolinski’s body would have disappeared and the old boy would certainly deny all knowledge of the affair. There’d be only our word against his, and seeing that Washington thinks I’m chasing a mare’s nest anyway, in trying to connect this prominent old man with crime—well, Fanely and his crew would get off scot-free.”
“And Ashton Sanborn would lose his job!”
“Exactly, Bill.”
They continued to head through the landscaped park toward the lodge, but kept well away from the drive. They were nearing the main entrance to the property before the secret service man spoke again.
“I’ve been thinking it over, Bill. The only way to get anything definite on that slippery old customer is to corral him in that laboratory he talked about. I’ve a hunch we’ll find evidence in plenty at Mizzentop. That laboratory, to my mind, is the center of this spider’s web.”