Charlevoix county herald., 1914-06-13

killed somebody in tn IRE? ?"
Looks like it to me, Rat"
"Who?"
Likely the guy whose names on
the door,"
Faber had numbered his tools
while talking, and he was as expedi-
tious about the use of them as when
he had jimmied the door of Jess's
fiat.
"You wait" he said, to Rat, and
passed inside. Gone but moment,
he returned with roll of canvas
beneath his arm, which he passed
into the keeping of the youth. Hold
that" he said, land don't you lose it.
1t amt nothin' but a woman's pic
ture, but I'm to git well paid for it,
all the same, providin' | don't take
| nothin' else outa the place where |
gets it."
He passed down the hall and
stopped before the door Of Moreaux's
studio. Again he made careful Sc
lection from among his tools.
"Whatchu goin' in there for?"
Rat demanded.
Evidence, you gink. wanta
know what Shaughnessy's done in
there, that's why; an the next time
he gifts uppish I'll put one across to
him that'll make him duck for cover,
| will. l always thought he was a
crook. There you are. These here
doors are some solid. Rat. Gee! but
it's light in here. You look around
you while | search the other rooms.
There amt no dead one in this one"
Rat was staring at the drawing
that had so frightened Shaughnessy,
and paid no heed to Taber, who
darted toward the other rooms and
seeing it, Rat understood, for he was
shrew beyond his years. He saw
in it the same thing that Moreaux
had discovered when he made 1.-THE
vague likeness to Shaughnessy.
Then Rat pieced together the sew
eral torn fragments of the drawing
that Shaughnessy had destroyed,
recognizing instantly the unmistak-
able likeness of the detective, and he
uttered a low whistle of astonish-
ment, sitting on the floor and lean
ing against the square standard of
the easel, to think. 1t rolled away
from him; and, as if the violence of
Shaughnessy when he attacked it
had broken it the whole thing fell
apart and cluttered to the floor
around the youth, littering him with
dust and fugitive sketches and what
not that the single drawer in the pc
destal disgorged.
He put the four pieces of the torn
portrait of Shaughnessy one upon
another to take them away with
him, which some instinct bade him
to do. A rough sketch of a pretty
face caught his eye, and he added it
to the pile. He was young enough
so that pictured faces appealed to
him, and he seized upon the lot that
had fallen from the broken drawer,
and rolled the whole together.
He was on his feet, with the roll
under his arm, when Faber returned,
and they spied at the same time the
articles of value that Shaughnessy
had collected.
Faber gathered them IN.
We'll whack up even on this,
Rat" he said. "There amt no dead
man in here, and | give it up what
it was that scared-Hellow He
slapped his knee. "That pictures
what done it.
"There was a picture of Shaugn
himself on that thing that's busted"
said Rat "He tore it up, but I've
got it here" He tapped the roll I'M
der his arm.
"For the love of Mike, look herew
Faber exclaimed. He had turned the
third easel, and disclosed the sketch
of Crewe that Jess had made.
"What'r' we up against, anyhow,
kid? Crewe and Shaughnessy and
Shannon and-Look o7er there, son!
IL that amt the face of Shannon's
Jess on that canvas, I'll eat it. Say,
here's me for the thick covers. This
here place amt healthy"
He darted from the room with
agility born of long practice in ex-
pert getaways, and Rat followed af-
ter, also badly frightened by that
glimpse of the picture of Crewe; for
Rat feared Crewe more than he did
the law or prison-bars.
They ran down eigl-t of the stair
ways, and were approaching the top
of the last one when Faber halted,
seized Rat, clapped hand over the
lads mouth, and drew him hastily
inso the deeper darkness of the en-
brasure of nearby doorway.
They stood without breathing
while a pat-pat-pat of softly falling
footsteps assembled the stairs, passed
around the elevator shaft, and
mounted the next ones. Nor did they
venture to move away for a long
time after that. Then they glided
down the last stairway and out of
the building, parting, and taking OPP
posite directions the instant the door
was passed.
Within the building man
mounted swiftly to the tenth floor,
breathing laboriously by the time he
arrived there. And outside Of it
three men, two of them in uniform
the third in civilians dress, crossed
the street and approached that en-
trance which neither Shaughnessy
nor Faber and Rat had used that
night. The civilian admitted them
with key. He led them to the ele-
vator, stepped inside, and switched
on the electric current which oper-
ated it.
Above them, on the tenth floor,
the lone man, breathless from climb
ing, haC found the door of Moreaux's
studio wide open, with the light