The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-07-30
CHAPTER xvii.
In the Room Over the Way.

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 In the Room Over the Way. R DROPPED below the window, and l above the rain I could hear the
 squash of the watchman's boots 1 in the mud. He flashed a night lamp in at the window next to ours, but he was not very near, and the open window escaped his notice. I felt all the nervous dread of a real malefactor, and when heard the gate close behind him and saw Burton put a leg over the sill was almost as re- llieyed as would have been had some body's family plate, tied up in table cloth, been reposing at my feet. NJ 1 Unlike the first floor, the second was subdivided into rooms. It took a dozen precious matches to find our way to the Side of the building over- looking the club and another dezen to find the window we wanted. When we were there at last Burton leaned his elbows on the sill and looked down and across.
 Could anything be better?' he said. 'There's our theater, and we've got a l proscenium box. That room over there stands out like spot lightI' He was right Not more than ff- teen feet away and perhaps a foot lower than our window was the win. l dow of the room where Fleming had been killed. It was empty as far as I we could see. The table; neat enough nov, was where it had been before, l directly under the light Any one who sat there would be an iIluminat. ed target iron. our window. Not only that, but an arm cotlld be steadied on the sill, allowing for ans almost per- feet aim. M
 Now where's your staircaseT' Bur ton jeered.
 l Above the rattle of the rain came 1 the thump. thump, of the piano and a half dozen male voices. Ehe shutters below were closed We could see nothing.
 Ithink it was then that Burton had his inspiration. 1 3sIn bet you a five dollar bill,p he said, that if I fire of my revolver here now not one of those fellows , down there would pay the slightest l attention.'
 1 'I'll take that bet.' returned "I'll wager that every time anybody drops a poker since Fleming was shot the entire club turns out to investigate"
 '.Ill tell you what I'll do," said Bur ton. Everybody down there knows me. I'll drop in for a bottle of beer, and you fire shot into the floor here or into somebody across, if you happen to see any one you don't care for. suggest that you stay and fire the shot, because if you went, my friend, and nobody heard it you would accuse me of shooting from the back of the build l ing somewhere
 | He gave me the revolver and left me l with final injunction. A
 Walt for ten minutes" he said. Tt will take five for me to get out of here, and five more to get into the clubhouse. l Perhaps you'd better make it fifteen.' He went away into the. darkness, and I sat down on an empty box by the window and waited Had any one ask led me at that minute how near we l were to the solution of our double mys- tery I>would have said we had made no progress, save by eliminating War ] drop. Not for one instant did dream 1 that I was within less than half an :hosr of revelation that changed my. whole conception of the crime. I had an idea that it would be hard to ex- 1 plain my position, alone in the ware l house, firing a revolver into the floor, If my own argument was right, and I the club should rouse to a search. I 1 looked again at my watch.
 Every one who has counted the pass Ing of seconds knows how they drag. With my eyes on the room across, and my finger on the trigger. I waited as best I could. At ten minutes I was conscious there was some one in the room over the way. And then he came into view from the side somewhere, I and went to the table He had his l back to me, and | could only see that he was large man, with massive shoulders and dark hair.
 It was difficult to make out what he was doing After half minute, how ever, he stepped to one side, and saw that he had lighted candle and was systematically reading and then burning certain papers, throwing the charred fragments on the table, With the same glance that told me that, I knew the man. It was Schwartz.
 I was so engrossed in watching him that when he came directly to the win- dow I stood perfectly still staring at him. With the light at his back l felt, certain I had been discovered, but I. was wrong. He shook the newspa- per that had held the fragments out out; of the window, lighted a cigarette and turned back into the room
 He was not alone, for he addressed some one in the room behind
 You are sure you got them all?' he said. .s. s. s | CT0 Re {s0ntfnuAdN