“It would be exactly like Millicent,” thought the colonel wrathfully, “to try to fool the kidnappers, who had apparently lost Archie, by pretending he was at the hotel!”
He made no comment aloud, but he nodded assent to Mercer’s proposal to telephone; and then he walked up to the stove man.
“The game is up,” he said quietly. “We have a lot of men waiting outside. If we signal, they will come any minute; if we don’t signal, they will come in ten minutes. Give us a chance to be merciful to you. This is no kind of a scrape for your father’s son—or for Arnold’s.”
Shot without range though it was, Winter was sure that it went home under all the young fellow’s assumed bewilderment. He continued, looking kindly at him:
“You look now, I’ll wager, about as you used to look in the office when you called on the dean—by invitation—and were wondering just where the inquiry was going to light!”
The dimple showed in the young man’s cheek. “I admit,” he replied, “that I didn’t take advantage as I should of my university opportunities. Probably that is why I have to earn a strenuous livelihood boosting the Only Peerless Fireless Stove. By the way, have you ever seen the Fireless in action? Just the thing for the army! Fills a long-felt want. I should be very pleased to demonstrate. We have a stove here.”
The colonel grinned responsively. “You do it very well,” said he. “Can’t you let me into the game?”
There was the slightest waver in the promoter’s glance, although he smiled brilliantly as he answered: “I’ll take it into consideration, but—will you excuse me? I want to speak to Mr. Mercer about the stove.”
The moment he had removed his affable young presence Birdsall approached his employer. It had been a difficult quarter of an hour with the detective. Vague instinct warned him not to touch the subject of Miss Smith; he felt in no way assured about anything else. The result had been that he had fidgeted in silence. But the accumulated flood could no longer be held.
“I’ve found out one thing,” exploded Birdsall, puffing in the haste of his utterance. “The boy is on the premises.”