The Daily Alaska empire., 1934-06-07
Chapter 24 !
AMBIGUOUS REPLIES

 THE usual place for MT Duf-esne's l gun is in. the highboy in his dressing-room?' Harper asked.
 Andrews nodded in agreement.
 Now, does any other member of this household keep a gun or re- yolver on hand?" s~
 "Donaghy, sir. He has a special permit to carry a weapon. MT. Du- fresne's order.'
 What type of gun is it?"
 "An automatic. am not familiar with calibers."
 Any others?"
 Not that I know of, unless you want to take account of the guns in MT. Dufresne's armor room."
 The detective smiled and shook his head. "No. I've seen them and they're all antique collectors pieces"
 Are you still positive that you do not recognize the murdered man? Look at these photos again."
 The old man examined the three facial views without the slightest sign of hesitancy or repugnance. He is complete stranger to me-" he reiterated, returning them.
 "Then how about Hamill, the po- liceman? Did you ever talk to him ?"
 'No, sir No doubt have seen him in the neighborhood at times, but I never paid any particular attention"
 "All right, Andrews. That will be all for the present. If there are more questions we'll deal with them as they arise"
 The butler withdrew as quietly as he had entered, leaving Harper feel ing highly elated over the success of his ruse. It was plain that old An drews suspected nothing about the revolver which had reposed in his masters room, and, since it was gone, Dufresne himself had probab- ly made off with it. The promptness of the hiding, too, suggested that Du- : fresne had been tho eavesdropper by the cellar stairs.
 The important thing was to gain possession of that gun. At that mo- ment Lafferty returned to the break fast-room. There's no doubt of its being gone" he reported. T looked everywhere. Dufresne walked in while I was searching"
 How did he act?" Harper asked eagerly.
 Suspicious and inclined to be a trifie nasty about it. How did you come out?"
 Andrews readily admitted that the revolver is Dufresne's."
 "Then Dufresne hid it." Lafferty declared emphatically. Its too bad we have to tread so damned quietly there"
 What do you mean?" Lafferty gave a wry smile. "Why. Dufresne's the one man we simply can't pin it on. He's the only one Of the lot with 100% bulletproof alibi. He was not only dead drunk at the time of the killing but locked away under police guard. Yet he knew that the fellow was shot with that gun and not by Hamilfs, otherwise he wouldn't have hidden it. Say he ey- claimed, looking startled, "how in thunder did he come to know that?" HARPER echoed his wonder. "Yes. Il how did he know that? Maybe we're barking up the wrong tree again. Suppose it wasn't Dufresne who removed the gun? Either the murderer himself slipped away with that gun or else confided the story to Dufresne. and he's covering up for him. Now we know that the mur- derer is not only alive, but walking around in this house."
 Lafferty scratched his chin thoughtfully. "If we could only get that dead man identified. Somebody in this house knows and is deliber- ately suppressing his identity"
 Harper smiled. We can wear kid gloves, too, but we'll keep the brass knuckles slipped on under them."
 You mark my words, Steve. The minute you let fly with the facts we've uncovered there'll be yelp and they'll try to run us oS this case so it can be nailed up and buried in hurry"
 Harper's lips frightened. Just let them try it. I'll carry this fight right up to the Directors office. Powerful as Dufresne may be, Connors won't let them hush it up by pinning it on Hamill."
 They heard Officer O'Connell's voice from the hall greeting some one and a moment later Acting Cap ting Quigley, of the Fourteenth Pre- ,cinct, entered the room.