MURK RECEIVES A BLOW
An hour before dinner, Detective Jim Farland suddenly appeared in Sidney
Prale's suite at the hotel.
"They are working on me now, Sid," he said. "I got a telephone message
when I was in the office, and the gent at the other end of the line
informed me that it would be beneficial to my health if I immediately
ceased having anything to do with the Rufus Shepley murder case and
stopped working for you."
"Any idea where the message came from?" Prale asked.
"It came from a public pay station in the subway. I had the call traced
immediately, of course. No chance of finding out who sent it, naturally.
I doubt whether I'd recognize the voice if I heard it again--could tell
by the way the fellow talked that he was trying to disguise his tones. I
told him to go to blazes, and he informed me that I was up against
something too big for a man to face, or something like that."
"Jim, if there is any danger, I don't want you to work for me," Sidney
Prale said. "You're married and a father and----"
"And that will be about all from you, Sid!" Farland interrupted. "Think
I'm going to let some man who doesn't tell me his name throw a scare
into me?"
"But, if there is danger----"
"I thrive on danger," said Jim Farland. "Think I'm going to desert you
at this stage of the game? That is what they want, of course. If I did,
you'd probably hire another detective, and it might be one of their own
men--whoever they are. I'm in this game to stay, Sid, first because you
are an old friend of mine and I think you are being made the victim of
some sort of a dirty deal, and also because I'm not the kind of man to
be bluffed out of a job. We are going right ahead. I got a note at the
office, too."
"A note!" Prale gasped.
"Typewritten, but not on George Lerton's battered typewriter this time.
It remarked that unless I gave up this case, somebody would make things
hard for me, or words to that effect. Old stuff! If they are so scared
that they send threatening letters, they're whipped right now--and they
know it!"
"I had an interesting experience this afternoon," said Prale.
"The fight?"
"I don't mean that. I met Kate Gilbert in front of the library. She
asked me to get a taxicab and drive her through the Park. I did it. She
begged me to leave New York and remain away, and said that my enemies
might not be so harsh if I did. I tried to get her to explain, and she
insisted that I knew all there was to know. She left the taxicab and
walked to her home."
"I'll have to investigate that girl more thoroughly," Farland said.
"She is on guard now, as far as I am concerned."
"Does she know Murk by sight?"
"I think not."
"Then here is where Murk gets a steady job for a time," Jim Farland
declared. "Murk, you go up to Kate Gilbert's home and watch a bit. Give
him plenty of money, Sid, for expenses. Just see if she leaves the
place, Murk, and if so, where she goes, and to whom she talks. Get any
general information you can. Try to keep her from knowing that you are
watching her, but if she finds it out drop the chase and get back here,
and we'll put another shadow on the job. When you are sure that she has
decided to remain in her apartment for the night, report back here to
Mr. Prale."
"You watch me," Murk said. "I never expected to be caught doin'
detective work and I reckon it's somethin' like a disgrace, but this is
a sort of special occasion."
Prale gave Murk more money, in case he would have to engage taxicabs or
follow Kate Gilbert where money would be necessary for tips and bribes.
"Your face looks pretty good, but you want to remember that there are
some marks on it," Prale told him.
"It's looked worse, boss," Murk replied, grinning. "I'll try to do this
thing right."
Murk hurried down in the elevator and went from the hotel. He got a cab
immediately, and promised that dire things would happen to the chauffeur
if he did not get to a certain corner up beside the Park in record time.
Jim Farland had given him a badge to be used if he was questioned by a
police officer, and he was to say that he was an operative attached to
Farland's office.
Murk discharged the taxi at the proper corner, touched match to
cigarette, and walked slowly down the street toward the apartment house
where Kate Gilbert lived with her father and her maid.
Jim Farland had told him the location of the Gilbert apartment, and Murk
saw that the lights in it were burning. It was about time for dinner, he
knew.
He went to a drug store on the nearest corner and hurried into a
telephone booth. He called the apartment house and asked to be connected
with the Gilberts. A woman's hoarse voice answered his call, and he
guessed that it was the maid speaking.
"Miss Kate Gilbert there?" Murk asked.
"Who is calling, please?"
"Tell her it is about that Prale affair," Murk replied.
"One moment. I'll call her."
Kate Gilbert's voice came to him over the wire almost immediately.
"Miss Gilbert?" Murk asked. "I was to tell you that----"
And then Murk jerked down the receiver hook, and grinned as he put the
receiver on it. Kate Gilbert would believe that a careless central girl
had cut them off and put an end to the conversation.
He had learned what he had wished to learn--that Kate Gilbert was at
home. He walked back up the street. All he had to do now was to watch,
and if Kate Gilbert left the place follow her. If she did not, Murk
would wait half an hour or so after the lights in the apartment were
turned out, to be sure that she had retired, and then would hurry back
to the hotel.
Murk watched from a distance at first, and then went slowly forward, for
he did not wish to attract attention by remaining in one position too
long. There were few persons on the block; and now and then some
automobile or taxicab would discharge a passenger and go on. Murk made
his way slowly to the end of the block, always watching the entrance of
the apartment house, crossed the street, and started back on the other
side.
He came in front of a dark passageway between two buildings, and went
on. And out of the mouth of that dark passageway came a blow that caused
Murk to groan once and topple forward. Hands gripped his unconscious
body and drew him back into the darkness.