He looked across at his visitor as he put the receiver up.
"Sorry to interrupt you. I didn't just get what you said."
A flicker of a smile passed across the visitor's serious face.
"It's of no consequence," he said. "Guess I must have been thinking aloud. You see it's kind of a fool trick having the button of that dummy 'phone in sight under the table. Guess the feller who fixed it was a 'mutt.'"
"Eh?" Mr. Meakin's face went suddenly scarlet. He was about to make a hasty reply, but changed his mind, and laughed with a belated sense of humor.
"It's served its purpose anyhow," he said genially. "What can I do for you?"
The stranger responded to his humor at once.
"Don't guess you can do much. Maybe you can tell me a deal. I'm looking for some one who's lately come to this city. A lady. Maybe you get a list of visitors to this city in your paper."
"At the hotels—yes."
"Ah, I don't guess she's stopping at an hotel. Came to visit her sister. Her name's Audrey Thorne."