The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1916-03-23

you do, to bring the william to an
accounting. IL you will conduct
the search, will defray any ex-
penses incurred, and thus, in a
way, do my share"
"All right, Mr.. Maxwell" said
Whiting. King. | hope you will
help me. Mr.. Hunt, may l also
count on your"
And so | went with Tom Whit
ing and Mr.. Hunt to the library
to discuss what we should do
first.
Il propose" Whiting said, that
We three canvass the neighbor-
hood, and see IL We can find any
one who saw that car Monday
night"
We agreed to this, and after
some further confab, we set out
on our preliminary search.
Later on Whiting and | return
ed to Maxwell Chimneys, and
found there note from Hunt
saying that he had discovered
nothing of consequence.
Lets leave him out of it," said
Whiting to me, hes no sort Of
a detective, anyway, unless he's
working on his own individual
theory. What did you find out,
King?"
AS We mutually discovered, we
had found out considerable. Stiff
ed out and checked up, the evil
dence seemed to be that the car
described by the earl was neither
fiction nor imagination.
Mr.. Plattner, the neighbor on
the right-though the country
houses sat some distance apart
had seen that car come from the
village of Hamilton at about 10
o'clock on Monday night. He had
CHANGED to notice it because of its
great speed, and he described it
as a long gray icar, with several
men in it.
Mr.. Allen, the neghbor on the
other side, had seen the car pass
his house, going very last, at
some time after 10. His descrip-
ton was the same.
Now let's go down to the vii
lage," Whiting went on, land
see If that car didn't stop at the
inn before coming up toward Mr..
Plattner's. 1t would be a most
natural thing to do"
So to the inn We went, taking
for the purpose a little runabout
from the Maxwell garage.
The inn-keeper listened to our
questions, and then said, thought
fully, Yep, that there car stop
ped here along about half-past 8
on Monday night"
did the men come in? How
long did they stay?" said Whiting,
impatiently.
mo, they didn't come in. They
jus whizzed up here, stopped a
minute, and asked me where the
Maxwell place was"
They did" we chimed in
amazed duet.
Eyes, sir; they did! And, of
course, told 'em, and never
thought of it again. Good land!
So they wuz the murderers, was
they?"
I'VE don't know" said Tom.
What were the men like?"
Il didn't notice them much. 1t
was the chap that sat by the driv-
er that asked me where the Max
wells lived. He was a big man,
with a big, deep voice, and a off
hand way-kind of like a West
erner. II you hadn't brought it
up, I'd never have thought of that
car again! How are you going to
find it?"
That's Just what don't
know" said Whiting, gloomily.
But l had an inspiration.
There's one thing, Whiting"
l said; "if those men left the Max
wells as late as half-past 10, they
must have gone somewhere to
spend the night. OF course, they
would want to get pretty we'll
away, but l doubt if they'd travel
all night. Now, let's telephone to
the most likely places, and see If
they know anything about them"
Now. that's a smart idea,"
commented SchfartZ, the inn-keep-
er. Il can give you a list or
map of all the hotels and inns in
this part of New Jersey"
We called up a score of places
on the telephone and spent two
good hours doing it. But at one
of them we spotted our quarry.
About midnight that gray motor
car had put up at a small hotel
in Millville, town some 80 miles
away. The hotel man described
the car and the party, and said
that the man who registered was
not the big Westerner, but one of
the others, who signed James
Mordaunt and party.
We asked no further informa-
tion over the wire, but determined
to go to Millville early the next
rnnrntnp Than 40 mo oould t,o m