It was early the following morning that Doyle burst in on us, very excited and waving a morning paper.

"Have you read the news?" he demanded, slapping the paper down in front of Kennedy.

We read at the point where Doyle\'s forefinger indicated. It was a personal inserted among the advertisements by Doctor Lathrop himself. No longer, it announced, would he be responsible for the debts of Vina Lathrop, his wife. Lathrop had at last definitely broken with her.

Kennedy and I exchanged glances. I recalled the quarrel we had interrupted on our last visit to them. Evidently that had been the climax. Nor was I surprised. It had seemed inconceivable to me, since my conversation with Belle Balcom, that ever Lathrop could be the kind of man to sit complacently under the growing gossip about Vina. How he had even waited so long was a mystery, unless to assure himself that what he heard was the truth. For men of Lathrop\'s stamp are the last to condone [219] anything in a wife, no matter what may be their own standards for themselves.

"Well, at any rate," conjectured Doyle, rather heartlessly, I thought, "I don\'t think people will waste a great deal of sympathy on her. It leaves Vina Lathrop no more than she deserves. The man she tried to use is dead. The man she sought to capture has turned her down cold. Now the husband she had no use for, except as a meal ticket, has left her. I can\'t see but what that dame had it all coming to her."

Kennedy refrained from comment. "Where has she gone?" he asked merely. "Do you know?"

Doyle shook his head. "This is the first that I knew that they were separated," he responded. "No, I haven\'t any idea where she is."

"What of Doctor Lathrop?"

"He seemed to have taken it very calmly. From what I hear, he hasn\'t even interrupted his practice. He stays there at the Drive address where he has his office. I suppose she has gone to a hotel, or perhaps out of town. I\'ll find out for you and have her watched, if you want."

Kennedy nodded, but did not say anything, and I know Doyle\'s attitude had not raised that gentleman any higher in Craig\'s estimation. It all seemed very strange, and, I felt sure, however, well worth following up.

"Of course, you know we haven\'t neglected the Wilford telephone wire," put in Doyle, sensing that [220] all was not just as it should be, yet not knowing just why.

"What did you do?"

"Put in a tap. Then I had McCabe and others listening in in relays in another room."

"Yes?"

"Here\'s a report of what they got this morning."

Doyle pulled out a sheet of thin paper on which had been typed some notes.

"There was a call early this morning for her," he said, as he ran his eye down the sheet. "It was from Shattuck—without a doubt. He\'s suspicious. The first part of the conversation shows that, you see."

"Let me read it, if you don\'t mind?" asked Kennedy.

"Not at all," agreed, Doyle, handing the copy to Craig.

Together we read it.

"Good morning," it began. "Is this you, Honora?"

"Oh, good morning," she replied.

(It was apparent that Mrs. Wilford recognized the voice, but she was cautious about repeating the name.)

"I\'ve something very important to tell you—but—well, not over the telephone. Is anybody listening?"

"I don\'t know. I suppose there is. Everything I do is spied on and watched. I can\'t write a letter. I can\'t go out—"

"I suppose that\'s right. If you went out you\'d be followed. There\'s no place that\'s safe. Probably somebody\'s getting an earful of this," came back the other voice. "Still, I\'ve something very important to say to you. Hang it! I\'m going to drop in and see you, Honora. This isn\'t an autocracy—yet. [221] They can\'t prevent me talking to you in your own home. Though, I suppose, even that is an offense. However, I\'ll call. Keep a stiff upper lip. Don\'t let them put anything over on you."

Mrs. Wilford must have tried to laugh it off, for the operative had drawn a line indicating a laugh and had added merely the repetition of the words, "Good-by."

Doyle looked at our faces as we read. "I have a scheme," he announced, craftily. "See what you think of it. There\'s that dictagraph I put in, you know."

Kennedy nodded. Although our opinion of Doyle was not of the highest, it was not impossible that here was a situation that called for no great amount of cleverness to surmount.

"Want to use it?" he asked.

Kennedy considered.

"I put the thing in right. There\'s a receiver in every room, and I\'ve got a sort of central office there. You can listen in on any room you please by just throwing a switch."

Kennedy assumed a flattering manner. "Just the thing, Doyle," he acquiesced. "Now look here. This is the way to work it. You go there first—not to the room, but to the apartment. Stay around there a bit as though you were looking for something, then leave and take care to make it certain that they know you are going away some distance and will be gone some time."

"I get you," agreed Doyle. "Then McCabe—"
[222]

"Confound McCabe!" interrupted Kennedy. "He must clear out, too. He\'s buzzing around that maid, Celeste. Well, for once it may lead to something. Give McCabe something to do that will take him away, too. Then tell him to let Celeste know. Get it? Make it as plain as day to her that for once you are all off the job. Then she\'ll think it\'s safe—unless she\'s clever," added Kennedy. "Meanwhile Jameson and I will slip into that little listening post of yours. Maybe we\'ll get something. You can\'t tell."

"It sounds all right," commented Doyle, loosening a key from a ring. "There\'s the key—it\'s Apartment K where the dictagraph is."

"All right," remarked Kennedy, taking it. "Now go along and get your end of the plant working. Do everything you can to let her believe that you\'ve relaxed. I\'ll get there in half an hour. We can\'t put this off too long."

Doyle left with alacrity. For once he could understand Kennedy\'s method and approve it.

Half an hour later we entered the Wilford apartment-house, taking care to do so at a time when the elevator was not down at the ground floor. As far as we knew, no one interested had seen us come in. That was the one chance we were forced to take. Its only disadvantage was that it made it necessary for us to walk up eight flights of stairs, and even then to go carefully, lest we meet some one in the hall.

However, we found Apartment K at last without [223] any difficulty, opened the door, and admitted ourselves quietly. Doyle had located the dictagraph in this room, two floors below the apartment of the Wilfords\', in this vacant suite.

As we entered, I saw that in the room were merely a deal table and a couple of chairs. On the table lay the box containing the receiving end of the dictagraph, to which already were fitted the head and ear pieces for listening. The switch on the table was marked, showing the various rooms in which the transmitters had been placed and arranged so that one might follow from one room to another, if necessary. There was paper for notes on the table, too, but otherwise the room was bare.

Kennedy adjusted the ear-pieces over his head, much as a wireless operator might have done, and, noting how he did it, I followed suit.

Then we waited. I could hear the clicks as he moved the switch past one connection after another, trying out the various rooms to see whether there was any one in them or not.

There was no one in the living-room, but as we listened we could hear the striking of a small clock on the mantel. From room to room we went, in imagination, almost as if we had been there, but able to go about unobserved. Had Honora been clever enough to penetrate our ruse? Or had Doyle and McCabe executed their end of the scheme clumsily?

We waited impatiently, wondering whether, after all, it was a fools\' errand for us.
[224]

Suddenly I could hear a dull, rhythmical noise above the mild buzzing of the dictagraph.

"What\'s that?" I asked, almost in a whisper, which was involuntary.

"Footsteps of some one coming down the hall into the library," replied Kennedy. "I fancied from slight noises which I heard that Honora was in there, alone, reading perhaps. I thought I caught the rustle of paper."

I could now make out the vibrations more clearly, then the low, almost inaudible buzz of a voice.

"Now it\'s plainer," I whispered.

Kennedy frowned. "They can\'t hear you," he reminded. "Still—don\'t forget I can."

I took the broad hint and was silent. Kennedy adjusted the machine for loudness and gradually I could hear the lowered voices being caught and played up.

It was Honora speaking to her maid, Celeste, who had just entered.

"You\'ve been down in Mrs. Smith\'s apartment?" we heard Honora ask.

"Yes, madame."

Kennedy shot a glance at me. Two, then, could play at the same game of watching. Evidently the maid had evolved the scheme of visiting some friendly maid in the building, and from that vantage-point watching the watchers. I trusted that she had seen nothing of us. It could hardly be that she had—or at least that they suspected the presence of the dictagraph, or they would not have [225] talked even in whispers, when they might have written and thus have been safe from being overheard. I was beginning to be relieved.

"Why did that McCabe tell you he had a day off?" asked Honora, thoughtfully. "Did he really go?"

"Yes, madame. And the other man hasn\'t come in. Mr. Doyle was here, but he didn\'t stay long. I heard him telephone for a taxicab to take him to the Grand Central. He seemed to be catching a train and looked as if prepared to stay away overnight."

"A train?" caught up Honora, eagerly. "Very well, Celeste. When Mr. Shattuck comes, let him in. Watch. Let me know if you see any one watching. It—it seems—I can\'t understand it."

The maid murmured something soothing in French to Honora and departed.

For some time—it seemed an hour—we waited in silence. Finally Kennedy reached over and touched my elbow. Again I could hear that low vibration, as of some one walking.

"It\'s Shattuck—I\'ll bet," Craig cried, excitedly.

Sure enough, it was, as we soon found out both by his voice and the conversation.

"You\'ve heard about Vina and the doctor?" he asked, almost as soon as he entered.

"No," re............