“ Yes, sir. Mr. Mainwaring is suffering from an indisposition, an organic heart trouble. At times when he’s seized with an attack, it is necessary that a nurse administer a hypodermic at once.”

  Lester Leith said, “She chews gum, Scuttle?”

  “So the newspaper article says. Apparently she chews gum vigorously.”

  “A male nurse, Scuttle?”

  “No, sir. A female nurse, and rather a goodlooking nurse at that.”

  “Heart trouble, did you say, Scuttle?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I can well understand it,” Leith said. “And the nurse was in India with him?” Leith digested that information for several thoughtful seconds. “ Scuttle,” he said, “I can imagine nothing more soothing to the nerves than a nurse who chews gum. There’s a quieting monotony in the repetition of chewing, as sedative in its effect as rain on a roof. I want a nurse who chews gum. Make a note of that, Scuttle.”

  “ A nurse who chews gum, sir!” “Yes,” Leith said, “and she should be rather goodlooking. I noticed that Miss Clayton’s… er… pedal extremities and the anatomical connecties are rather peculiarly adapted to photography.”

  “Yes, sir,” the spy said. “Do I gather that you want a nurse with shapely legs, sir?” “ Not exactly that,” Lester Leith replied. “I want a nurse who chews gum. If her means of locomotion are attractive to the eye, Scuttle, that’d be an added inducement.”

  “ A position at good salary is open,” Lester Leith dictated, “for a pulchritudinous young woman with shapely means of locomotion, amiable, easygoing, goodnatured, acquiescent young woman preferred, one who never becomes nervous under any circumstances, a proficient, adroit, expert, and inveterate gum chewer, preferably a careless parker, must be able to pop her gum loudly. Salary, three hundred dollars per month with all traveling expenses… Have you got that, Scuttle?”

  “ But there’s no reason why you should have a nurse, is there? That is, I mean, sir, you aren’t sick?”

  “Yes, sir,” the spy said, his voice showing dazed incredulity.

  “No,” Leith said. “I feel quite all right, Scuttle. Thank you.” “ Very good,” Leith observed. “Telephone the employment agencies, and now let’s get back to Mainwaring.”

  “ Therefore,” the spy said, “begging your pardon, sir, employing a nurse would seem rather… er… conspicuous, would it not?”

  “ Perhaps so,” Lester said. “And yet, on the other hand, Scuttle, I can imagine nothing which would more readily reconcile me to Sergeant Ackley’s continued existence than association with a young woman with shapely pedal extremities, who makes a habit of placidly chewing gum.”

  “ Mainwaring got through customs on the evening of the thirteenth, sir. The customs officials found nothing which hadn’t been declared. It was then about seven o’clock and getting dark. Mainwaring’s chauffeur was waiting for him. He—”

  “ Just a minute, Scuttle. Mainwaring didn’t take his chauffeur on this tour with him, did he?”

  The spy blinked his small, black eyes rapidly as he strove to comprehend the significance of Leith’s remark.

  “No, sir. The chauffeur stayed and acted as a caretaker at the house.”

  “I see. Go on, Scuttle.” “ Therefore,” Leith went on, “since a nurse seems conspicuous, as you have termed it, I shall insist upon a gumchewing secretary, Scuttle. Make a note to call the employment agencies asking for an adroit, expert, inveterate gum chewer, a secretary with pulchritude and bovine masticational habits, a careless parker— Here, Scuttle, take a pencil, and take this down as I dictate it.”

  “ Yes, sir,” the dazed spy said. “Well, the chauffeur loaded the hand baggage into the car, and they started for Mainwaring’s house. When they were somewhere around Eightysixth Street, the right rear tire blew out; and when the chauffeur went to fix it, he found the jack was broken. He knew of a garage some half dozen blocks away, and Mainwaring said he and Miss Clayton would wait in the car while the chauffeur went to the garage. The chauffeur had some difficulty as the garage was closed. He thinks he was gone perhaps some thirty minutes in all. The robber held up Mainwaring only a few minutes after the chauffeur started out. In fact the chauffeur saw the bandit drive past him, noticed him particularly because of his build. He was big, fat, massive, and with a swarthy complexion. The chauffeur actually saw his features, sir. He was the only one who did. The stickup man had put on a mask by the time he had driven abreast of the Mainwaring car.”

  “Yes, sir, he was, but the nurse feels

  quite certain that he was a native of Southern India. Both she and Mainwaring agree that he was very fat although he moved with catlike quickness. He was driving a car which had been stolen.”

  “How do they know the car was stolen?” Leith asked.

  “Why did the chauffeur notice him so particularly, Scuttle?” “ Because he thought the man might stop, pick him up, and drive him to a garage, sir. The chauffeur had his livery on, and he stepped out from the curb and motioned to this man. The chauffeur’s quite thin himself, sir, and he naturally noticed the other’s corpulence.”

  “ Because the chauffeur, returning with the jack, saw this same car again. This time it was speeding away from the scene of the holdup. He noticed that the driver was wearing a mask which concealed his features, so he took occasion to notice the license number. He gave it to the police, of course, as soon as he learned of the holdup. The police found that the car had been stolen. Later on, they found the car itself parked on Ninetythird Street. It had been abandoned there.”

  “The man didn’t stop, Scuttle?” “ No, sir. He seemed, according to the chauffeur, to be driving fast and with a purpose. When the chauffeur saw his swarthy complexion, he wondered if the man might not be following Mainwaring’s car; but he dismissed the thought as being a bit farfetched. Yet there can be no doubt of it that it was this man who held up Mainwaring and killed the monkey.”

  “ On Ninetythird Street,” Lester Leith said, frowning. “Wait a minute, Scuttle. Isn’t there a suburban railroad station there?”

  “ Yes, sir. I believe there is, sir. That’s the station where nearly all of the incoming and outgoing trains stop to pick up passengers who prefer to avoid the congestion of the central depot.”

  “ Killed the monkey!” Lester Leith exclaimed. “Do you mean that this was all the man accomplished?”

  “And the monkey was slit open, Scuttle?” “ Yes, sir.” “Yes, sir. He killed the monkey. That seemed to be what he wanted to overtake the car for.”

  “What was the chauffeur’s name,

  Scuttle?”

  “And didn’t take anything?” “Deekin. Parsley B. Deekin, sir.”

  “No, sir.” “Any photographs of him?”

  “That’s odd,” Leith said. “And the man was masked?”

  “Yes, sir. Here’s one, sir.” Leith studied the photograph of the thin hatchet face, prominent cheekbones, and large eyes. “Rather young to be a chauffeur, isn’t it, Scuttle?”

  “ I don’t think he’s so young, sir. It’s because he’s thin that he looks young; the effect of a slender figure, you know.”

  “ Yes, sir, I suppose so, sir. But Mainwaring and the nurse both thought he was a native of Southern India, you’ll remember, sir.”

  Lester Leith held up his hand for silence. “Wait a minute, Scuttle; I want to think.” “ I see,” Leith said, frowning thoughtfully. “And after the monkey was killed, he was slit open?”

  “ That’s right, cut almost in two, and then tossed back into the car. Mainwaring said he’s been afraid all along that an attempt would be made on the monkey’s life by some religious fanatic. He said that the monkey was a temple monkey, that his life was supposed to have been consecrated to the priests of Hanuman. He says that in India when a monkey has been so consecrated and then leaves the temple, the priests consider it a desertion just as they do when a priest has consecrated his life to the monkey god and then tries to leave the temple and take up life somewhere else.”

  For several seconds he sat rigid in the chair, his face an expressionless mask, his eyes slitted in thought. The valetspy, his big form perched on the edge of the chair, regarded Lester Leith thoughtfully.

  Suddenly Lester Leith said: “Scuttle, let me have the telephone book, and find out what trains pull out of the Ninetythird Street Station between seven and nine thirty in the evening. Get me the information at once.”

  “ Very good, sir,” the spy said, vanishing in the direction of the soundproof closet in which the telephone was housed.

  “Sounds like a barbarous custom, Scuttle.” Lester Leith said.

  “Yes, sir, it is, sir. Oh, quite.”

  “Any other witnesses, Scuttle?” “ None who saw the man’s face, sir. A young woman glimpsed a very fat, paunchy man with a mask which concealed his entire face driving a car. She couldn’t even tell the make of the car, however. She thought it was a sedan. The car the man used was, in reality, a coupe. It had been stolen about six o’clock in the evening. Because the man took such pains to conceal all of his skin, the police deduce he must have been swarthy.”

  Leith grinned.

  “Aided in that deduction, of course, Scuttle, by the chauffeur’s statement.” Five minutes later, he was back with the information. “A train leaving the central depot at seven twenty, sir, stops at Ninetythird Street at seven fifty, at Belting Junction at eight ten, at Robbinsdale at eight thirty, and at Beacon City at nine thirty. After that, it becomes a limited train and makes no stops until after midnight. Those other stops are merely for the purpose of taking on suburban passengers.”

  Leith said: “Very well, Scuttle. Plug in the telephone extension, and put the desk phones over here.”

  When the spy had done so, Lester Leith called the baggageman at Belting Junction, and said: “Hello, I’m trying to trace a suitcase which was checked through on the train which leaves Central Depot at seven twenty in the evening. This suitcase went forward on the evening of the thirteenth, and has not been claimed. I have reason to believe it was checked to your depot.”

  “Who is this talking?” the baggageman asked.

  “This is the claim adjuster’s office,” Leith said. “Shake a leg.” “ Just a minute,” the baggageman said. And then after a few moments, he reported, “No, there’s no such suitcase here.”

  put a wrong check on it. I don’t think he did, but anyhow we’ve located the suitcase, and that’s all that’s necessary. He’ll be out tomorrow. In the meantime you open the suitcase, familiarize yourself with the contents, and don’t let anyone who can’t describe those contents have the suitcase. That’s important.”

  Lester Leith hung up the telephone, and nodded to the spy.

  “Thank you,” Leith said, and hung up. He called the station agent at Robbinsdale, made the same statement, and secured the same answer. But at Beacon City, the situation was different. The baggageman said:

  “ Yeah, we’ve got a suitcase here. It came on that train, and has never been called for. I’ve been charging storage on it at the rate of ten cents for every twentyfour hours, after it was uncalled for fortyeight hours. What do you want me to do with it?”

  “Describe the suitcase,” Leith said.

  “Well, it’s cheap, splitleather suitcase, tan, with straps. It’s rather large.”

  “Any initials on it?” Leith said.

  “Yes, there are the initials A.B.C. in black on both ends of the suitcase.”

  “I think, Scuttle,” he said, “that the situation is now greatly clarified.”

  “What do you mean, sir?” the spy asked. Leith said: “Has it ever occurred to you, Scuttle, that Mainwaring resorted to rather a clever trick? Before he landed, he opened the mouth of the monkey and forced those emeralds into the monkey’s stomach, probably intending to kill the monkey himself and remove the stones when he had reached his home. However some clever holdup man, who deduced what must have happened, swooped down on him, killed the monkey, cut the animal open, and took out the stones. Mainwaring naturally isn’t in a position to make a complete explanation to the police because then he’d be guilty of smuggling and subject to a fine. So he had to put the best face he could on the matter and make up this cockandbull story about the priests of Hanuman following the monkey and exacting his life as a sacrifice.”

  “ Well,” Leith said, “a man will probably call for it tomorrow. He won’t have his claim check. Make him deposit a bond of fifty dollars and describe the contents, then give him the suitcase.”

  “ It’ll be all right to give it to him if he doesn’t have the check?” the baggage agent asked.

  “Good heavens, sir! You’re right!” the spy exclaimed. “ Of course I’m right,” Leith said, frowning slightly. “Don’t seem so surprised, Scuttle. I have shown what is, after all, only very ordinary intelligence.”

  “But what happened to the gems, sir?” “ Yes, if he describes the contents, and if he puts up a fiftydollar bond. The check’s been lost, and this party claims the baggageman here

  Lester Leith stared thoughtfully into space for several seconds. At length he said: “In order to answer that question, Scuttle, I would require two specially constructed canes, four imitation emeralds, a package of cotton, and a gumchewing secretary.”

  “Yes, sir,” the spy said.

  “And I don’t want the canes.”

  “You’ve already asked me to get the secretary,” the spy suggested.

  “No, sir.” “ Nor the cotton.” “So I have,” Leith said, “so I have.”

  “No, sir.” “If you don’t mind my asking, sir, what type of cane did you have in mind?”

  “ I would need two canes, identical in appearance,” Lester Leith said, “two very large canes with hollow handles; that is, there must be a receptacle hollowed out in the handle of each cane. This receptacle must be capable of concealing two of the imitation emeralds; and one cane must have a telescopic metal ferrule so it can be extended and locked into position, or telescoped back and locked into position. Aside from that, both canes must be exactly alike.”

  “ But,” Leith said, “you might get me the secretary, Scuttle. Have each agency send its most proficient gum chewer.”

  CHAPTER II BEAVER REPORTS

  Sergeant Ackley sat at a battered desk in police headquarters and scowled across at the undercover man who had finished making his report.

  The spy blinked his eyes. “I don’t see what that has to do with it, sir,” he said. “Damn it, Beaver,” he said. “The thing doesn’t make sense.” Leith smiled. “After all, Scuttle, the gum chewing secretary is of prime importance. However, Scuttle, I think I’ve exercised my wits enough for this afternoon. I believe I have a dinner engagement?”

  “Yes, sir. That’s right, sir. But when do you want these canes, sir?”

  “I’d require them by tomorrow morning at the very latest. I— What’s that, Scuttle?”

  “You were talking about the canes, sir, when you wanted them.” “ Good heavens,” Leith said. “I don’t want the canes. I was merely working out an academic solution for a crime. Under no circumstances, Scuttle, are you to take me seriously.”

  The undercover man sighed resignedly. “None of his stuff ever makes sense,” he said, “and yet somehow he always fits everything together into a perfect pattern and whisks the swag right out from under our noses. I’m getting tired of it.”

  “ Of course,” Sergeant Ackley went on, “this suitcase is important. You can see what happened, Beaver. The robber, whoever he was, stopped in at the depot and checked this suitcase.”

  “ That, of course, gives us a clue to work on,” the spy observed. “But Heaven knows what’s in that suitcase. Leith told the baggageman to open it, familiarize himself with the contents, and not to let anyone have it who couldn’t describe those contents. Now, of course, we could go down there with a warrant and—”

  “ Absolutely not,” Sergeant Ackley interrupted. “That’s foolish, Beaver. We’ve been working for months to catch this man, and now that we have a perfect trap all prepared, we’d be foolish to go down and steal the bait ourselves.”

  crook, we’ll follow him. Of course, we’ve known all along that Mainwaring’s account of the crime was fishy. We felt certain the stickup was over those gems. That was why I wanted you to get Leith interested in working it out. Of course that suitcase may… well, we’ll just keep that as bait.”

  Beaver got to his feet.

  “Then you don’t think the gems are in the suitcase?”

  “Why the devil should they be?” Sergeant Ackley asked. “ Well,” he said, “I’ve told you everything I know. Now, I’ve got to get busy and give those girls a onceover as they come in. I suppose they’ll have chewing gum stuck all over the place.”

  The undercover man shrugged his shoulders, and said, “Stranger things have happened.”

  Sergeant Ackley assayed a ponderous attempt at humor. “Be careful they don’t gum the works, Beaver.”

  “ Well, not that strange,” Sergeant Ackley snapped. “After all, the robber took considerable chances in order to get those gems. He undoubtedly must have followed Mainwaring from India. That much of Mainwaring’s story is true; and the robber, once having secured possession of those stones, certainly made tracks for parts unknown. He’s probably thousands of miles away from here by this time, traveling by airplane, but there must be something in that suitcase—something which fits into the scheme of the thing. But I don’t see how it’s going to do Leith any good, because he can’t describe the contents of that suitcase any better than we can.”

  “ Well,” Beaver said, “I’ve made my report.” And his voice indicated that he considered himself relieved from further responsibility.

  Sergeant Ackley said: “We’ll plant a couple of men around the depot. The minute that suitcase leaves the place, we’ll get busy and follow it to its destination. If Leith picks it up, so much the better. If he sends some messenger, we’ll follow the messenger until he leads us to Leith. If it’s an accomplice of the