Mrs. Hogarth knocked the counter with the palm of her hand.
"That's it, sir, that's it ... her face was hot, as you might say, flushed you might call it, with pleasure. That was a extryordinary good guess, sir." Mrs. Hogarth was in the seventh heaven of delight--she had assisted this friend of Sir Charles Considine, she felt sure. She would now fire her last shot, her crowning triumph.
"There's one other little thing, sir, now I come to think of it," she murmured with more than a suggestion of an apology in her tone, "I wasn't listening to the conversation in any way, sir, I know my place here better than to do that, but I've just an idea that I did just manage to hear the last sentence the hussy spoke." She breathed heavily as she looked at us.
"Better and better, Mrs. Hogarth," said Anthony. "You're a veritable 'Treasure-Trove' of information. Let's hear it."
"Well, sir, as she was a-finishing the conversation she was having, I'm almost sure I overheard her say 'Good-bye, Emma!'"
"No sir, I couldn't remember anything else."
"I needn't trouble you any more, then. You have helped me considerably. Come along, Bill." We bowed ourselves out, personally conducted by the postmistress--a beaming postmistress now--and started homeward.
"Well, Bill, things are plainer now with a vengeance," said Anthony decisively.... "I think if I put these facts before Baddeley he will take action ... if necessary the call should be easy to trace ... then Webb can be taken comfortably."
He assented. "They call him 'Spider' as much for his physical as for the name association," he continued. "I remember seeing his photo when he was tried and sentenced--he has long thin arms and long thin legs--with smallish feet."
"That she had the pearls, laddie! She has been planted there to get them ... the 'Spider' flies high ... or shall we say he spins high ... forged references doubtless ... she waited three years for her chance. Yesterday it came. Her 'phone message to the 'Spider' was 'Success' with a capital 'S,' William! Best part of the three years he's been in prison."
"You don't know she did 'phone her husband," I ventured, with criticism in my voice. "Why call him Emma? It may have been the most harmless of conversations."
