CHAPTER XXXV
LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT
From ten thousand bulbs the moving-picture houses of Curtis Street wereflinging a glow upon the packed sidewalks when Kirby came out of thehotel and started uptown.
He walked to the Wyndham, entered, and slipped up the stairs of therooming-house unnoticed. From the third story he ascended by a ladderto the flat roof. He knew exactly what he had come to investigate.From one of the windows of the fourth floor at the Paradox he hadnoticed the clothes-line which stretched across the Wyndham roof fromone corner to another. He went straight to one of the posts whichsupported the rope. He made a careful study of this, then walked tothe other upright support and examined the knots which held the linefast here.
"I'm some good little guesser," he murmured to himself as he turnedback to the ladder and descended to the floor below.
He moved quietly along the corridor to the fire escape and stepped outupon it. Then, very quickly and expertly, he coiled a rope which hetook from a paper parcel that had been under his arm. At one end ofthe coil was a loop. He swung this lightly round his head once ortwice to feel the weight of it. The rope snaked forward and up. Itsloop dropped upon the stone abutment he had noticed when he had beenexamining the exteriors of the buildings with Cole Sanborn. Ittightened when he gave a jerk.
Kirby climbed over the railing and swung himself lightly out intospace. A moment, and he was swaying beside the fire escape of theParadox. He caught the iron rail and pulled himself to the platform.
By chance the blind was down. There was no light within, but after hiseyes had become used to the darkness he tried to take a squint at theroom from the sides of the blind. The shade hung an inch or two fromthe window frame, so that by holding his eye close he could get morethan a glimpse of the interior.
He tapped gently on the glass. The lights inside flashed on. From oneviewpoint he could see almost half the room. He could go to the otherside of the blind and see most of the other half.
A man sat down in a chair close to the opposite wall, letting his handsfall on the arms. A girl stood in front of him and pointed apaper-knife at his head, holding it as though it were a revolver. Thehead of the man fell sideways.
Kirby tapped on the window pane again. He edged up the sash andstepped into the room.
The young woman turned to him eagerly, a warm glow in her shell-pinkcheeks. "Well?" she inquired.
"Worked out fine, Rose," Kirby said. "I could see the whole thing."
"Still, that don't prove anything," the other man put in. He belongedto the staff of the private detective agency with which Kirby wasdealing.
The Wyoming man smiled. "It proves my theory is possible. KnowingOlson, I'm willin' to gamble he didn't sit still on the fire escape an'let that drawn blind shut him off from what was goin' on inside. Hewas one mighty interested observer. Now he must 'a' known there was aclothes-line on the roof. From the street you can see a washin'hangin' out there any old time. In his place I'd 'a' bopped up to theroof an' got that line. Which is exactly what he did, I'll bet. Theline had been tied to the posts with a lot of knots. He hadn't time tountie it. So he cut the rope. It's been spliced out since by a pieceof rope of a different kind."
"How do you know that's been done since?" the detective asked.
"A fair question," Kirby nodded. "I don't. I'll find out about thatwhen I talk with the landlady of the Wyndham. If I'm right you can betthat cut rope has puzzled her some. She can't figure out why any onewould cut her rope down an' then leave it there."
"If you can show me her rope was cut that night, I'll say you'reright," the detective admitted. "And if you are right, then the Swedemust 'a' been right here when your uncle was killed."
"_May_ have been," Kirby corrected. "We haven't any authentic evidenceyet as to exactly when my uncle was killed. We're gettin' the timenarrowed down. It was between 9.30 and 9.50. We know that."
"How do you know that?" the professional sleuth asked. "Accordin' toyour story you didn't get into the apartment until after ten o'clock.It might 'a' been done any time up till then."
The eyes of Kirby and Rose met. They had private information about whowas in the rooms from about 9.55 till 10.10.
The cattleman corrected his statement. "All right, say between 9.30and 10.05. During that time Hull may have shot my uncle. Or Olson mayhave opened the window while my uncle lay there helpless, killed him,stepped outa the window again, an' slipped down by the fire escape.All he'd have to do then would be to walk into the Wyndham, replace therope on the roof, an' next mornin' leave for Dry Valley."
The detective nodded. "_If_ he cut the rope. Lemme find out from thelandlady whether it _was_ cut that night."
"Good. We'll wait for you at the corner."
Ten minutes later the detective joined them in front of the drug-storewhere they were standing. The hard eyes in his cold gambler's facewere lit up for once.
"I'll say the man from Missouri has been shown," he said. "I let on tothe dame at the Wyndham that I was after a gang of young sneak thievesin the neighborhood. Pretty soon I drifted her to the night of thetwenty-third--said they 'd been especially active that night and hadused a rope to get into a second story of a building. She woke up.Her clothesline on the roof had been cut that very night. Sheremembered the night on account of its being the one when Mr.Cunningham was killed. Could the boys have used it to get into thestore an' then brought it back? I thought likely."
"Bully! We're one step nearer than we were. We know Olson was lookin'in the window from the fire escape just outside."
The detective slapped his thigh. "It lies between Hull and the Swede.That's a cinch."
"I believe it does," agreed Rose.
Kirby made no comment. He seemed to be absorbed in speculations of hisown. The detective was reasoning from a very partial knowledge of thefacts. He knew nothing about the relations of James Cunningham to hisuncle, nor even that the younger Cunninghams--or at least one ofthem--had been in his uncle's apartment the evening of his death. Hedid not know that Rose had been there. Wherefore his deductions, eventhough they had the benefit of being trained ones, were of slight valuein this case.
"Will you take the key back to the Chief of Police?" Kirby asked him asthey separated. "Better not tell him who was with you or what we weredoin'."
"I'm liable to tell him a whole lot," the detective answered with heavyirony. "I'm figurin' on runnin' down this murderer myself if any oneasks you."
"Wish you luck," Kirby said with perfect gravity.