“Whatever made you come to me on such an errand, then? My business is building safes,—not building means to rob them.”
“Nonsense, that’s not the idea. I merely want a private passage from one room to another in my house,—”
“You’re way off, sir. You’ve come to the wrong place, entirely. Good morning, sir.”
“But,—stay,—wait a minute. I’m recommended here by—” And Coe whispered in the ear of Breese the same name Lulie Lloyd had whispered to him.
Breese looked utterly blank.
“Don’t know your friend, sir; never heard of him. Good morning!”
This last dismissal was accompanied by a glance that meant a very definite invitation to leave, and as there seemed small use in staying Coe left. But he was disappointed. He had hoped to get a line on the secret entrance which he knew gave into Kimball Webb’s room.
One forlorn hope came into his breast. He would try to get hold of the valet, the gold-toothed valet, who had played fast and loose with Lulie Lloyd. This showed him to be a man of not unimpeachable morals, and he might be useful.
He went boldly back to the house he had so recently left, and inquired if his friend had yet returned.
“No, sir,” the imperturbable doorman informed him.