"H.H. Who the devil is H.H.?"
"Me, you bet. Hiram Hervey, citizen of the U.S.A. Nantucket neighborhood
for home life. And see, don't you get m'hair riz, or I'll scalp."
"You can't scalp me," chuckled Braddock, passing his hand over a very
bald head. "See here, what do you want?"
"Name a price and I'll float round to get back your verdant corpse."
"I thought you were going to the South Seas?"
"In three months, pearl-fishing. Lots of time, I reckon, to run this old
circus I want you to finance."
"Have you any suspicions?"
"No, 'sept I don't believe in that window business."
"What do you mean?" Braddock sat upright.
"Well," drawled the Yankee, "y'see, I interviewed the gal as told that
perticler lie in court."
"Eliza Flight. Was it a lie she told?"
"Well, not exactly. The window was snibbed, but that was done after the
chap who sent your pal to Kingdom Come had got out."
"Do you mean to say that the window was locked from the outside?" asked
Braddock, and then, when Hervey nodded, he exclaimed "Impossible!"
"Narry an impossibility, you bet. The chap who engineered the circus
was all-fired smart. The snib was an old one, and he yanked a piece of
string round it, and passed the string through the crack between the
upper and lower sash of the window. When outside he pulled, and the snib
slid into place. But he left the string on the ground outside. I picked
it up nex' day and guessed the racket he'd been on. I tried the same
business and brought off the deal."
"It sounds wonderful and yet impossible," cried Braddock, rubbing his
bald head and walking excitedly to and fro. "See here, I'll come along
with you and see how it's done."
"You bet you won't, unless you shell out. See here"--Hervey leaned
forward--"from that window business it's plain that no one inside the
shanty corpsed your pal. The chap as did it entered and left by the
window, and made tracks with that old corp you want. Now you pass along
five hundred pounds--that's English currency, I reckon--and I'll smell
round for the robber."
"And where do you think I can obtain five hundred pounds?" asked the
Professor very dryly.
"Well, I guess if that blamed corpse is worth it, you'll be willing to
trade. Y'don't live in this shanty for nothing."
"My good friend, I have enough to live on, and obtain this house at a
small rent on account of its isolation. But I can no more find the sum
of five hundred pounds than fly."
Hervey rose and straightened his legs.
"Then I guess I'd best be getting back to Pierside."
"One moment, sir. Did anything happen on the voyage?--did Bolton say
anything likely to lead you to suppose that he was in danger of being
robbed and murdered?"