Hutchins heard of the nocturnal visit, he merely raised his eyebrows.
“I told you he was a slick one,” he said to Glenn. “I don’t blame you, though—you did your best. But he had the advantage in knowing the ways of his own house, and being able to run around in the dark.”
“Aw, I know this house well enough,” Glenn declared. “I haven’t lived here a week or more without knowing where the doors and halls run into each other, and all that. But it was his fighting that put me out of commission.”
“Jiu-jitsu?”
“Not a bit of it. But skillful, clever wrestling—like a professional. Why, I hadn’t a show. He didn’t hurt me a bit, but he just, well, he just sort of set me on one side. Then, as you say, he did know, even in the dark, just where he wanted to get to—and he got there.”
“And fooled you beside.”
“Yes, and fooled me beside. Of course, when I heard the front door slam open, I supposed he went out that way. And there, little cutie had swished the door open, with a flourish of trumpets, and then he had whisked himself through the house, and out at the good little old back door—so he had! Had the nerve to leave that open behind him, too!”
“Don’t worry, Glenn, if you had caught him you couldn’t have held him, and if you’d locked him in—he’d have got out! I tell you he’s as bright as they come—if he is an artist.”
“Well, what next? He’ll not come here again.”
“How do you know? Did he get what he was after?”
“What was he after?”
“I don’t know. What did he get?”
“I don’t know that he got anything. But I haven’t looked around at all. I was so sore—mentally, not physically—that I just went back to bed—and I’m only just through my breakfast now.”
“Let’s give the place the once over. I don’t think there was anything of value for him to take—but he was after something and we may get a line on it.”
“Why, of course, he was after his lucky piece—as Charley calls it.”
“Yes—if it was Locke.”
“If it was Locke? Who else in thunder could it be?”
“Might be lots of people. Hello, what’s this?”
The two had wandered through the studio, looking for any bit of evidence and finding none, and now they were in the Den. On the floor in a corner lay a strange looking object.
Hutchins picked it up and held it out at arm’s length.
“Well, I’m blowed!” he ejaculated, though he rarely gave way to such elaborate expletive.
But the occasion seemed to justify it, for the thing he held up to Glenn’s view was a wig of rather long, black hair.
Glenn’s eyes grew big and round as he gazed.
“That’s it!” he cried; “I grabbed him by the hair once, and it seemed to slide! Gave me the creeps! I’d forgotten that. My heavens, Hutchins, what does it mean?”
“It means,” the detective said, slowly, “well, it might mean something else, but I’ll say it means that your friend of last night wasn’t Locke at all, but somebody rigged up to look like him.”
“Yes—that must be it. An ordinary burglar, disguised as”
“No, by no means an ordinary burglar! Rather a most extraordinary one! One who was so bent on getting in here that he made up to look like a man for whom a reward is offered! That’s going some!”
“But it must have been Locke—for he came in with his own night key—that is, he must have done so, or how did he get in?”
“Well, a chap smart enough to make up like Locke is smart enough to get a key somewhere or somehow. But, why? why?—that’s what I can’t understand. It can only be that there is some incriminating evidence still here regarding that murder. Nothing else would bring about such elaborate preparations.”
“Mightn’t be elaborate. Just slapping a wig on your head isn’t such a great game.”
“No; but this is just like Locke’s hair”
“How do you know—except by hearsay?”
“That’s so, Glenn, I don’t. But all the descriptions of Locke sound like this thing looks.”
“It was Locke, Hutchins, I saw his two gold teeth gleam. I’ve heard over and over again about those two gold teeth.”
“So have I. Well, no burglar could carry disguise so far as that. It must have been Locke. I have it. He’s had his hair cut, to escape detection, and coming back here, he put on a wig to be different from what he really is now.”
“Pretty good—but not good enough. I’ll tell you! It was that brother of Locke’s. He’d likely have gold teeth, too, such things run in families—and he impersonated his brother to get something here in the house.”
“I never thought that brother person was really a brother,” Hutchins said, gloomily. Things were getting beyond his ken.