"What's the matter?" inquired Jimmie Dale.
"Nothing," said Carruthers. "You kind of got me for a moment, that's
all. That's the way those infernal notes from the Gray Seal used to
end up: 'Find the lady, old chap; and you'll get me.' He had a damned
patronising familiarity that would make you squirm."
"Poor old Carruthers!" grinned Jimmie Dale. "You did take it to heart,
didn't you?"
"I'd have sold my soul to get him--and so would you, if you had been in
my boots," said Carruthers, biting nervously at the end of his cigar.
"And been sorry for it afterward," supplied Jimmie Dale.
"Yes, by Jove, you're right!" admitted Carruthers, "I suppose I should.
I actually got to love the fellow--it was the GAME, really, that I
wanted to beat."
"Well, and how about this woman? Keep on the straight and narrow path,
old man," prodded Jimmie Dale.
"The woman?" Carruthers smiled. "Nothing doing! I don't believe there
was one--he wouldn't have been likely to egg the police and reporters on
to finding her if there had been, would he? It was a blind, of course.
He worked alone, absolutely alone. That's the secret of his success,
according to my way of thinking. There was never so much as an
indication that he had had an accomplice in anything he ever did."
Jimmie Dale's eyes travelled around the club's homelike, perfectly
appointed room.
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