She rose as he
entered, with horror in her comely face.
"Dan!" she whispered. "Dan! where is ye'r mackintosh?"
"I didn't take it," he replied, endeavouring to tell himself that
his apprehensions had been groundless. "But how was it that you
did not answer the telephone?"
"What do ye mean, Dan?" Mary Kerry stared, her eyes growing wider
and wider. "The boy answered, Dan. He set out wi' ye'r
mackintosh full an hour and a half since."
"What!"
The truth leaped out at Kerry like an enemy out of ambush.
"Who sent that message?"
"Someone frae the Yard, to tell the boy to bring ye'r mackintosh
alone at once. Dan! Dan------"
She advanced, hands outstretched, quivering, but Kerry had leaped
out into the narrow hallway. He raised the telephone receiver,
listened for a moment, and then jerked it back upon the hook.
"Dead line!" he muttered. "Someone has been at work with a wire-
cutter outside the house!"
His wife came out to where he stood, and, clenching his teeth
very grimly, he took her in his arms. She was shaking as if
palsied.
"Mary dear," he said, "pray with all your might that I am given
strength to do my duty."
She looked at him with haggard, tearless eyes.
"Tell me the truth: ha' they got my boy?"
His fingers tightened on her shoulders.
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