Harper nodded, strode to the bed, picked up the pillow by its two corners, raised it and shook the case violently.

  The pillow dropped out of the case, and, as the pillow struck the bed, something separated itself from the pillow.

  Delamy gave an exclamation, and lunged forward. Harper grabbed his hand.

  “Don’t touch it,” he said, ” until we find out what it is.”

  He took a pencil from his pocket, turned the object slowly on the bed, nodded his head thoughtfully.

  “A rubber sac filled with some deadly poison. You notice there are half a dozen hollow needles attached to the sac. When you put your head down on the pillow, at least one of these needles would have penetrated your cheek. You can imagine what would have happened after that.”

  Delamy stared, wide-eyed.

  Harrison Gale coughed nervously, clutched at his throat.

  "I’ve seen enough,” be said. ” My life is worth more than two million dollars. I don’t know how you fellows feel, but…”

  Taber Boxman nodded.

  ” Yes,” he said, “I believe in giving the man the money. We’ll try to find oat who he b afterwards and let the police arrest him, but let’s give him the money first.”

  Ben Harper shook his head slowly. ” Gentlemen,” he said, “if you’ll go to your rooms and stay in them, I think I can promise you that you will be safe. It is only necessary for you to promise me that you will go to your rooms, bolt the doors, and not open them to anyone for twelve hours.”

  ” Bosh,” Boxman said explosively. ” You and your stunts! I’ll admit that your photographic memory came in handy just now, but if someone is going to guarantee my safety I want it to be someone who tuts more claim to distinction than merely being a unique vaudeville performer. Moreover, I don’t intend to have anyone keep me a prisoner in my room.”

  Pitley Simms nodded his bead in nervous acquiescence.

  “Pay the money,” he said. “Pay the money. That’s the only way. Pay the money and get it over with.”

  Harper bowed his head.

  “If,” he said, “you gentlemen feel that way, I would suggest, by all means, that you pay the money. Io the meantime I trust you will pardon me. as I’m rather tired. You certainly have no further need of my services.”

  ” But, wait a minute,” Gate said, “we warn you to use your peculiar talents to find out just who it is that’s at the bottom of this.”

  ” I thought,” Harper told him,” that you were going to delegate that to the police.”

  “The police are all right in their way, but they can’t do anything with this kind of a man,” Simms said “On the contrary,” Bosnian drawled, " I think they can. But I think you’ll find that when the man with whom we are dealing lays down the conditions under which money is to be paid he’ll specify chat nothing is to be said to the police for a period of time that he will specify. Otherwise I would say he wasn’t very intelligent.”

  Harper nodded his head slowly.

  "Yes,” he said, “I think you’ll find that such a condition is a part of the tribute which is to be levied. And, gentlemen, remember that you’re dealing with a very intelligent man.”

  CHAPTER VI

  A Dead Man in an Alley

  Ben Harper was conscious of the car which followed him, ah most from the moment when that car took up its pursuit One moment hi$ glance in the rear view mirror had shown him a city street, with half a dozen pairs of headlights coming in his direction. The next glance had shown seven pairs of these headlights, and the seventh pair of headlights had kept the same relative distance from his car over a period of half a dozen blocks.

  An ordinary eye would merely have seen a tangle of traffic, snarling along the boulevard, but Ben Harper’s mind was so constituted that he could never see a tangle of anything. His photographic memory etched every individual unit upon his consciousness.

  At the end of fifteen blocks the car was still there.

  The car made no attempt to lessen the distance, but kept in an advantageous position, where it could keep the tail tights of Harper’s machine in sight.

  The Man Who Couldn’t Forget did not vary his speed. When he reached the block in which his apartment house was situated, however he did not lot* low his usual custom of parking his car in front of his house and letting his Japanese valet take the car to the garage.

  Instead, he turned the car into an alley, drove to a vacant lot, back of a billboard display, switched off the lights and the ignition, and jumped from the car to the protecting shadows of a doorway, waiting to see what would happen.

  Nothing happened.

  There was no trace of the other car. Harper heard a car slide to a stop in the street, but could not be certain whether it was the car which had followed him.

  He waited some ten minutes; then, still hugging the shadows, he followed the alley to its intersection with the street beyond.

  When Harper had left the Midwick Building, he had worn a distinctive fur coat and a gray velour hat When he had left his automobile, he left both coat and hat in the machine, and wore on his head a dark cap which he kept in the glove compartment of the car.

  He was within some twenty feet of the door of his apartment house when there was the flurry of motion near the door, and a man stepped out from the shadows.

  Harper braced himself, prepared to lunge forward in the event the man should raise a weapon, but the man’s hands were at his sides as he stepped into the light.

  ” Mr. Harper,” he said in a low voice, “I must see you at once.” Harper glanced at him swiftly.

  “Your features,” he said, “are familiar. I have never seen you before in my life, but I have seen features similar to yours…You must be the brother of Elisabeth Crail.”

  ” I am,” Ashley Crail said. ” And I guess by this time you know why I’m here.”

  ”What,” asked Harper, “do you want me to do?”

  “I want your help. They all suspect me.”

  ” I can’t clear you. You must do that yourself.”

  ” Can you advise me?”

  “Yes,” Harper said. ” But let’s go to my apartment.”

  Harper fitted his latchkey to the door of the apartment “That your car parked over across the street?” he asked.

  “No,” the young man said. Harper’s eyes bored into Crail’s face.

  ” look here,” he said. “Do you mean to tell me that you didn’t follow me here in that car which is now parked across the street?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  ” How did you come here?”

  ” In a taxicab.”

  ” Why did you leave before I did?” " I knew that you were coming here, and I wanted to see you.”

  " Why did you hide in the doorway?”

  ” I didn’t want anyone to know I was here. I was afraid that some of those men might have been following you. to see whether you went directly to your apartment”

  ” Why should they follow me?”

  “They wouldn’t follow you, but they’d have you followed. They’d have someone like Menloe follow you.” “Why?”

  ” Because they’re suspicious of everything, everyone.”

  Harper said nothing at they rode up in the elevator. Not until he had seated his visitor in his apartment and had Koshioto bring highballs, did he encourage farther conversation.

  ” Are you certain,” he asked, “that Mr. Gale or some of the others didn’t tell you to come out here and talk with me?”

  ” Absolutely not I’m here on my own behalf, because I’m under suspicion. I’d quit in a minute, but I don’t want to quit that way. The way it is now, everything that goes wrong they blame onto me.”

  “How about Draper?” Harper asked, closing his eyes.

  “I’d known Draper when he was a traffic officer. Then be got involved in a bit of a scandal and had to leave the force. As a matter of fact, he changed his name. He was looking for an opportunity to begin all over again, but he couldn’t seem to get started. He’d been a gun runner and a rum runner. He’d gone in for bootlegging, hijacking, and a little bit of everything.”

  “Go ahead,” Harper invited, his eyes still closed.

  "I knew that these millionaires were hiring bodyguards. I thought it would be an excellent opportunity for Draper. I gave Draper a letter to Millers—a letter which Draper never presented.”

  “Where’s Draper now?” Harper asked.

  ” That’s just the point,” Crail said, fidgeting uneasily. “Draper knew that something serious had gone wrong. It didn’t take him long to find out what it was. He knew at once that he would be held by the police for questioning. He didn’t give a. damn about anything in connection with Millers’ death, because be could prove that he couldn’t have had anything to do with it; but there were one or two other things that he didn’t want (0 have the police inquiring about, and lie knew they’d make a searching investigation. So he slipped out.” Harper nodded slowly.

  There followed an interval of silence, which was shattered by the ringing of the doorbell, the shuffle of Koshioto’s feet, and then the sound of a feminine voice. A moment later, Koshioto opened the door.

  Before he could speak Harper nodded.

  “Show her in, Koshioto,” he said. Skirts rustled in the corridor. There was the quick click of high-heeled shoes, and then Elizabeth Crail stood staring accusingly at her brother.

  ” I thought you’d do this,” she said. She turned Waring eyes to Harper. "I want you to understand,” she said, “that my brother is absolutely innocent of any wrongdoing. He’s as honest as the day is long, but he doesn’t know much about human nature. He makes all sorts of foolish friendships. This man. Draper, is a shining example. Draper is no good.

  ” I wanted to intercede with you on behalf of my brother, but I don’t want my brother to intercede with you on behalf of Draper. As far as Draper is concerned, I want you to find out what he knows about this thing. Draper would sell his soul for money.”

  “Now, Elizabeth,” her brother protested, “don’t…

  “Shut up!” she said. ” I know what I’m talking about. Draper is absolutely no good. He’s imposed upon you for years;”

  Harper raised his hand for silence, then said to Elizabeth Crail, “How did> you come out here?*’

  ” I drove out”

  “Was there,” he asked, “ a car parked on the opposite side of the street, about twenty yards to the north, when you came up?”

  ” No, there wasn’t any car parked in the entire block.”

  ” It was a Buick,” Harper said, “with a license 9J8496. The tire on the left rear wheel was a Goodyear; the one on the right rear wheel was a Miller. The left rear fender had been dented and straightened.”

  She shook her head and said,” No car there.”

  “Then,” Harper told her, “I think I had better retrieve my own car.”

  He nodded to Koshioto.

  “ Koshioto, my car is up the alley by the signboard. Here’s the key to the ignition. My overcoat and hat are in the car. Put the car in the garage and bring me my coat and hat.” Koshioto knew his master too well to show surprise. His teeth flashed In a smile. He said, “Yes, sir,” and vanished.

  Harper stared at the girl.

  “Did Delamy know that you were coming here?” he asked.

  “No one.”

  “Where do they think you are?”

  ” They don’t know.”

  ” You’re allowed the opportunity of coming and going as you please?”

  ” So far I have been, but I don’t know just what’s going to happen. They may put themselves in a state of siege.”

  Her brother spoke viciously:

  “Damned bunch of money-grabbers!” he said. “All except Delamy. I wouldn’t care if someone shook them down for all of their money. They’re capitalizing on the misfortune of Others and…

  ” That’s not getting you anywhere,” site said. “Don’t you realize how foolish you are to voice sentiments like that? If you don’t respect those men, don’t work for them.”

  “I give them plenty of value for every dollar they pay me,” he told her.

  Harper glanced over at the girl.

  “Have they locked themselves in their rooms?” he asked.

  “No, they were having a terrific argument when I left.”

  “Know what it was about?” he asked her.

  She smiled and said, “After all, Mr. Harper, I’m an employee, you know.”

  He nodded his head, said slowly, “Yes, and a loyal one.”

  “And what does it get you?” her brother asked bitterly.

  She kept her eyes fastened on Harper.

  “Will you,” she asked, “please tell my brother that he’s got to turn Draper up? If they talk with Draper they’ll find out that Draper couldn’t have been guilty of Milters’ murder. In the first place. Draper couldn’t have the brains. But Draper is a bad egg. I don’t like him. If Millers had given him the job I’d have gone to Mr. Delamy and asked to have Draper discharged.”

  “One of these self-righteous, nasty-nice individuals, aren’t you?” sneered her brother.

  “You know I’m not!” she flared. “I’m trying to protect you from yourself, that’s all.”

  ” Thank you,” he told her. “I don’t need any protection from you.”

  Harper kept his eyes dosed.

  “If you wish to brawl,” he said, “you’d confer a favor on me by doing it somewhere else. Personally, I’d like to think.”

  “I beg your pardon,” she said with quick contrition.

  Her brother said nothing.

  Harper sat for several minutes, his eyes dosed, his face tranquil, his forehead unfurrowed. But he gave the impression, nevertheless, of a concentration which considered carefully every angle of the problem he was turning over in his mind.

  Abruptly, he opened his eyes and smiled.

  ” I think,” he said, ” I have a plan of campaign…

  The door opened. Koshioto appeared in the room, bowing and smiling.

  "Master,” he said, “a dead man in the alley.”

  “A dead man?” Harper asked.

  Koshioto nodded, sucked in his breath. He laughed nervously.

  ” Dead man,” he said, ” wears your overcoat and hat. He is very dead.” ” In the alley?” Harper asked.

  ” In the vacant lot between alley and ear.”

  ” What did he die of?” Harper asked.

  ” Little hole in back of neck.”

  "Bullet hole?” Harper asked.

  “ Very little hole.” the Japanese said. “Does not go through.”

  Harper frowned for a moment, then got to his feet.

  “Why,” asked Ashley Crail, “should a dead man wear your coat and hat?” Harper said slowly,” No, you’ve got that wrong. Why should a man who wears my coat and hat be killed?” “Good heavens!” Elizabeth Crail said. “Do you think that was it?”

  ” I’m virtually certain of it.” he told her. “I would suggest that you (wo youngsters call a taxicab. The less you know about this, the better.”

  ” Can I help you?” Elizabeth Crail inquired.

  "No,” he said,” but you might look through the books of the Betterbilt Investment Company and see if the company owns a nineteen thirty-two Buick.”

  She nodded her head.

  “And should I say anything to Mr. Delamy,” she asked, “about the dead man?”

  He shook bis head.

  “You’re not notifying the police?”

  ” Probably not.”

  “But,” she said, “murder is serious.”” I am,” he told her, “going to try and prevent more murders.”

  “Whose?” she asked.

  His lips tightened into a grim line. ” My own—among others,” he told her.

  The body lay some twenty feet from the paved alley. It was lying face down, the arms sprawled out above the head.

  Ben Harper did not leave the paved alley, but stood on the edge of the pavement. The beam of his flashlight circled slowly about the body of the dead man.

  ” You took my hat and coat, Koshioto?” he asked.

  ” I took the hat and coat,” Koshioto told him. ” Not well for hat and coat of mastah to be found upon dead man.” Harper stood staring at the body.

  ” Koshioto,” he said, ” the ground is muddy from rain this afternoon. Your footprints show in the ground. The footprints of the dead man show in the ground. There are no others.”

  “One footprints when I came,” he said.

  Harper, standing cm the paved alleyway where his feet would leave no prints, said slowly, ” It will make trouble, Koshioto, with the police.” “Police do not know Koshioto’s footprints,” the Japanese pointed Out.

  ” Be certain that they don’t,” Harper said.

  ” Koshioto’s shoes go in furnace at once,” the servant remarked, bowing and sucking in his breath with a hissing noise.

  “The police,” Harper pointed out, “seeing the tracks of only one man near the dead body, will be convinced that those tracks are the tracks of the murderer.”

  ” Police cannot arrest tracks,”

  Koshioto said.

  ” They can arrest the man who made the tracks.”

  “Excuse, please, but must first find man who make tracks.”

  Harper went on almost musingly, ” That will be the logical deduction for the police, but what is the logical deduction for us?”

  “Deduction,” Koshioto asked, “is when two is taken from five, leaving three V

  Harper shook his head and said, “No. A deduction of one fact from another fact. If this man is dead, who killed him?”

  “Hole in the back of neck.”

  ” But how did the hole get there?”

  Koshioto shrugged his shoulders.

  “There is,” said Harper, “the track of no human being within twenty feet of (lie dead man. You can see his tracks coming from the automobile. He walked steadily until he got within some ten or fifteen feet of the place where his body lies. Then he staggered, took two lurching steps and fell.”