SixSecondsofDarkness_10205682.pdf

SIX SECO N D S O F
D A R KN ES S
CHAPTER I
H E old timer at
- the
telephone
bo ard made a cas ual en try on the
report sheet spread before him ,
relighted his ofie ns i v e l y fragrant pipe ,
an d s wung his swivel chair around idly .
“ ”
That was O Rafierty on nine he re
’
,
“ ”
ported . All s quiet
’
.
D esk Sergean t Larry O Brien grinned

’
cheerfull y through the ha z e of rancid
smoke .
“
As I was afther he remarked ,
“
ye cannot always sometimes tell T is
’
.
these clear and aisy nights which beget ac

tion for us poor coppers Ye wouldn t be
.
’
a fther thi nki n by the quietude which has

’
g ripp e d us hereabouts these past sivi n

2 SIX SECONDS OF DARKNESS
’
d ays that there s a bombshell sizzlin un ’
”
der headquarters wai tin to be busted ’
.
The other answered sagely :

“
That all depends on how much
you ve been talking to reporters Larry
’
, .
They ve been asking so many question s

’
and taking so many notes that I m afraid ’
to say me name s Farris They re wise ’

.
’
that something s up ’
.
“
—
Bad cess to em the whole beloved ’
lot There s S tinson of the N em f him

.
’
—
that s so thin he could sit on a dime an
’ ’
ye d s htil l be able to read In God We

’ ‘
Trust he wanted to know was I in on the

-
’
graft ?
“
And you told him
“
I m afther givin nothin away me
’ ’ ’
,
bhye I merely raym ark e d that I m no

.
’
special pals with Barret Rollins an that ,

’
Police Commissioner Clement Hall ap

i
’
p n te d me personally .
Farris lowered his voice discreetly and

hitched his chair confidentially closer .
srx SECONDS OF DARKN ESS 3
“
re wise ain t they ? The
’
They whole
’
,
”
crowd ?
“ ”
To p what?
“
That Rollins is in the middle of the
firewo rks ? That Hami lton s been try ing
’
to get him ever since Hall became inter

es te d in this Civic Reform Le ague ? I
” “
don t see
’
he complained why they al
, ,
ways start in on the police when they de

”
cide a city needs cl e an in up ?
’
“
Logic most likely And as for Rob
, .
bins he don t be afther lovin Comm is

’ ’
,
sion e r Hall nor Mister E dward J Hamil .
ton anny more than they re lovin him ; ’ ’
which is considerable less than none at all .
An he s a good de tictiv e too ; he s keen

’ ’ ’
, ,
an he s got a good head on a pair of hefty

’ ’
sho ulders But A! me bhye O i m think

.
, , ,
’
in ! i d rather be a disk sergeant right thi s

’ ’
mi nute than Mister Barret Rollins chief ,
—
av de ti ctives An well sp e akin av an
.
’
,
’
—
gels o r di v ils
The street door swu ng back and a man
.
4 SI X S ECOND S OF DARKNES S
of medium height briefly acknowledged
the salute of the gray haired doorman
- .
The newcomer swung across to the desk

.
and nodded a curt greeting .
“
he said how goes it ? ,
So so chief How s the bhye ? ’

-
, .
“
Well enough Anything new to .
”
n ight ?
“
E verything s dead N othing stirring
’
.
anywhere except a sti ff was drug out av

the river an carried to Carson s u n d e rtak
’ ’
”
ing joint What s ne w with you ?
.
’
N othing nothing at all I ll be going

, .
’
into the office yonder for a smoke and a bit

of a snooze If you want me
. He
waved his hand airily .
O B rie n s eyes followed the man with

’ ’
interest as he walked across the room to

ward the little door which opened into h is
private office Barrett Rollins radiated
.
strength and physical ability in every well

kn it line of his stocky figure His n u
usual breadth and depth of chest conveyed
SI X S ECO NDS OF DARKNESS 5
an impress ionof lack of height to which a

tape measure easily gave the lie N or was .
his face that of the average plain clothes

-
man ; the eyes were a bit too close set per ,
haps but they were level eye s eyes

,
—
blessed with the rare faculty of pene tra
tion The brain behind those eyes was
.
alert and ruthless .
H e had worked himself to his present

positi on as chief of the plain clothes force
-
by dint of sheer ability A little political

.
pull may have helped here and there but ,
that as sistance had been inconsiderable .
He was an efficient man greatest testi ,
mony to which was given by the unani

—
mous praise of his worst enemie s who by ,
the way numbered legion He was a

, .
martin et ; unbending inexorable heart

, ,
less His third degree was a classic

. .
Larry O B rie n chuckled softly as he

’
chewed the stub of a dilapidated cigar .
“
And to think of him he remarked
, ,
“
bein squeezed between th thumb an
’ ’ ’
6 SIX SECONDS OF DARKNES S
forefinger of a little undersized runt of a ,
reformer like E dward Hamilton Ham il .
ton s said he s ready to turn th ings loos e

’ ’
an tear em up an he never makes a state

’ ’
,
’
ment unless
The telephone on his desk j angle d
sharply Farris groaned audibly as he
.
lifted himself from the depths of his swivel

chair and the sergeant motioned him back
to rest .
“
O i ll be a fther an s weri n it m e s ilf
’ ’
h e said and then l ifting the receiver

, ,
“
P lice h eadquarters
’
.
From the other end of the wire came the

curt in cisive tones of Police Commissioner
,
Clement Hall the real czar of the depart,
ment under the city s new form of govern ’
ment .
“
Sergeant O Brie n ?
’
Yis sor Mis the r Hall isn t it ?

, .
,
’
”
Yes Is Rollins there ?
.
“ ”
Yis sor , .
“
Tell him to tak e two of his best m en ,
SI X S ECONDS OF DARKNESS 7
H awkins and Cartwright if they re there

’
, ,
an d hustle to the home of E dward J H am .
ilton in Chief Rariden s automobile ’

.
“ ”
The chief s auto ain t here sor
’ ’
, .
“ ”
A taxicab then came the impatient
, ,
“
s n ap
. Hurry ! That s the thing I m ’ ’
a fter .
“
An d whin they get there sor ? ,
The comm i ssioner s usually placid voice

’
q uivered with excitement

“ ”
Hamilton has been murdered !
“
P wka tt
' ? E dward Hamilton ?
“
Yes Tell Rollins to drop everything
.
e l s e and stick on that case until he gets
th e man Tell him I know nothing about

.
it except that Mrs Faber Hamilton s .

,
’
h ouse keeper just telephoned me that

,
Hamilton had been shot I m coming .

’
right down to headquarters Tell Rollins .
to keep in touch with me I want speed .
u n derstand ? And I want him to catch the

”
m an who did it !
The receiver clicked on the hook and ,
8 S I X SE COND S OF DARKN ESS
Sergeant Larry O Brien dazedly follow e d
’
suit at his end F arris had risen and was

.
standing at the sergeant s elbow his old ’
eyes on fire w ith excitement .
“ ’
,
—
What s that O Brien what s that ?
’ ’
“ ”
There s hell broke loose ! came back
’
“ ”
the sharp answer O rderly !
.
The young policeman on duty answered

the ca ll im mediately He had heard j ust
.
enough of the conversation to comprehend

its import .
“
Yes sir ?
,
—
Call Chief Rollins quick ! ”
Then ,
turning back to Farris : Hamilton

”
killed ! Holy s ufie rin mackerel !
,
’
Rollins came out of his private office on

the j ump His little eyes were blazing
.
,
and his manner radiated the competence

which had carried him to his present posi
tion of eminence on the polic e force .
“
What s this ? Hami lton killed ?
’
“ ”
D eade r n
’
a doornail ! snapped
SI X S E CONDS OF DARKNESS 9
“
OBrie n
’
. Hall wants you to take Hawk
ins an d Cartwright and stick around there
un til you get the guy D idn t tell me .
’
anything S ays the ho usekeeper tele

.
p honed him He s. coming down

’
here ,
and is afther wan ti n you to keep in touch

’
with us He s liable to stop in there so

.
’
,
”
ye d better hurry
’
.
“
I ll hurry O rderly ! Hike upstairs
’
.
and tell Cartwright and Hawkins to

”
come running He viciously bit ofi the
.
“
end of a black cigar Good Lord ! H am
.
”
ilton killed !
In an unbelievably short time the two
plain clothes officers presented themselves
-
at the desk Rollins briefly ordered them

.
to follow The faces of the three men de

.
tail ed to the case were studies in concentra

tion and bewilderment N or could they .
conceal the excitement which gripped

them That E dward Hamilton of all
men Should have been murdered at this
10 SI X SE CONDS OF DARKNESS
par ticular time ; E dward Hamilton civic ,
reformer broker social leader ! And evi

, ,
de n tl y in his own home !

E ven before the door had closed behin d
them policemen appeared from the dormi
tories upstairs in various stages of dis
array begging for news To all of them
, .
O B rie n made the same an s wer He kne w

’
.
nothing except that H amilton had bee n

murdered How or why or when he did
.
not know As to the place of the crime

.
,
he j udged it had been at Hamilton s home ’

.
Policemen gathered in knots and discussed

the case excitedly robbing them selves of
,
well earned sleep that they might miss no

-
detail of the case as it was telephoned in .
O ne by one they went up stairs to make

-
themselves presentable only to return and

,
lounge about the gri m room speculating ,
on the whys and wherefores .
E dward J Hamilton occupied a unique

.
position in the city s life A bachelor at

’
.
forty his household had no other members

,
SIX S ECONDS OF DARKNESS 11
e xcept his ward a gir l of about nineteen

,
years of age and one of the city s most pop

,
’
ular debutan tes and a Mrs Faber who for

'
, .
,
m any years had held the position of house

keeper .
Years before he had retired from the ac

tive bus iness life of the city although his ,
retirement had been more a figure of

s peech than an actual fact He was fin an
.
ci a ll y in terested in most of the city s larg

’
e s t enterprises ; he was ou the directorates
o f the F irst N ational Bank and of a large
l umber corporation He was socially in

.
—
demand a thorough cosmopolite a pol ,
'
i s h e d gentlem an a patron of the arts ; a

,
m an known for his gentleness of disposi

tion his lovableness of character his un
, ,
flagging devotion to duty and above all , , ,
for his fearlessness .
O f enemies he had man y ; no man of de

cided character is ever entirely free from
en emies but they respected him D uring
, .
recent years public office had been thrust

12 SI X SE CONDS OF DARKNES S
at him and he had steadfastly declined
, .
But lately he had forged to the front of the

stage with the organization of the Civi c
—
Reform Leagu e a body of le ading citi
zens who recognized the rottenness in
D enmark and had decided to weed their
municipal garden It was at head of suc h
.
a body of men that one who knew Hamil

ton would expect to find him And there
.
he was !
His murder coming at this time was
, ,
nothing less than sensational N o s ingle

‘
event could have so shaken the city The .
veriest novice of the police force felt h im

self ou his toes for it was public kno wl
,
edge that the fo rce had been slated to re

ce i v e the first broadside from the guns of
the Civic Reform League captained by the

,
dead man It was up to the department to

.
make good to do i ts bit to neutralize the

,
sentiment against it by prompt and effi

cient action in discovering and apprehend
ing the culprit .
SI X S ECO NDS OF DARKNES S 13
The clock over the sergeant s desk ’
slowly struck ten and with the striking

,
c a me the first of the ca lls from the police

m e n o u the vario us beats about the city ,
g ivi n g their hourly report A t fiv e min

.
u tes past ten a handsome limousine

w hirred up to the door of police he ad qu ar
t e rs It j erked to a protesting stop with a
.
l o ud screeching of brakes Im mediately

.
the officers about the walls rose to their

feet and massed together starin g toward
,
t he door .
In the stark glare of the single carbon

IM p which glowed in the doorway the ,
figure of a woman appeared She jum ped .
from the driver s seat of the big car gath

’
e r e d her skirts about her and half walked

, ,
ha lf ran across the sidewalk and into the

,
p o lice station.
She entered the room and paused in u n

ce rtainty Larry O B rien rising to his
.
’
fe et appraised her swiftly with his keen

,
Irish eyes .
14 SI X SECOND S OF DARKNESS
He saw a girl of about nineteen ye ars
of age a girl with rose red cheeks and n ow
,
-
pallid lips flashi n g black eyes and raven

,
hair She was of medium height slender

.
, ,
a n d even in the tempest of emotion b y

,
whi ch she was plainly gripped wonder ,
fully graceful Her bosom rose and fel l

.
unevenl y ; the folds of her w rap fell back ,
disclosing a costly evening dress The .
young policeman in the corner who had p a

trolled the beat on which the murder had
that night occurred stifled an exclamation
of surprise but did not succeed in holdin g
,
back the girl s name ’
M is :D uval !
“ ”
A gasp went up from the policemen .
They surged cl oser to the desk Sergeant.
O Brie n rasped them back and bowed to

’
the girl :
“
Yes miss ?
,
S he stared about her in bewilderment .
“
—
This this is police headquarters ? ”
“ ”’
Yes ma am
,
.
SI X SECONDS OF DARKN ES S 15
I want to see the chief .
“
I m sorry miss he isn t here
’
, ,
’
.
It was plain that she was on the verge of

h ysteria .With a film y bit of lacy hand
k erchief she dashed the tears from her eyes .
“
I must see him I tell you ! I am E u ,
n ice D uval Mr Ham ilton s ward Mr ’

. .
, .
—
H amilton has just been been killed !— ”
O Brien lowered his voice trying fu

’
ti l e l y to quiet her agitation

“
Yes ma am ; we ve just heard it
,
’ ’
.
D on t you worry none ma am we ve got

’ ’ ’
, ,
o u r best men out on the case an we ll ’ ’
c atch the man that did it Bad cess to th ’

.
”
s palpeen .
The girl stopped Short and stared at

h im. Then she broke into a laugh ; a
laugh which was not good to hear a loud—
l augh gratingly harsh
, .
“
You ll catch the one who did it ?
’
Who who — You

O B ri e n w as nonplussed and not a little
’
em barrassed A woman in hysterics !

.
16 SI X S ECONDS OF DARKN ESS
Keep a bol t on yers ilf ma am Im ’ ’
, .
—
Se r in t O Brien Larry O Brien at yer
’ ’
g ,
s ervice ma am ,
’
. If ye ll have a chair
’
I ll
’
stared at him as tho ugh transfixed

She .
Then her h ands went to her bos om and She ,
threw back her head once more Peal .
after peal of laughter rang out ; the laugh

ter of unco ntrolled hysteria Larry .
O Brie n mumbling to the saints for help

’
, ,
deserted his post at the desk and rounded

the railing to her side O ne of the patrol .
— —
men a man of family diagnosed th e
case and sent out a hu rry call for a flask
of whi sky .
“
Take it aisy now ma am soothed , ,
’
O B rie n T is a terrible thing to be

’ ’
.
,
s ure but we ll catch the guy

’
, .
The laughter stopped as abruptly and as

eerily as it had S tarted F o r a min ute the .
—
girl tried to speak but the words seemed
to choke her .
CHAP TER II
POLI CEMAN in the crowd s aid

“ ”
Oh ! very suddenly, an d an
other one broke in wi th a hoars e
”
Shut up ! Farris the old timer m e
,
-
,
chan ical l y took down the repo rt of the p a
trolm an on beat sixteen The orderly

.
produced a chair as though by magic and ,
in to it E unice D uval sank gratefully .
Not e v en the sensational news of H am

il ton s death had created the stir in the
’
m inds of the policemen which w as begot

ten by the confession of the girl that Sh e
was guilty of the crime It was Lar ry
.
O Brien who first regained a semblance of

’
his poise and he forced a light laugh to his

,
lips .
“
Av course he s aid in what he fondly
,
believed to be a calm and matter of fact

- -
18
SI X SECONDS OF DARKNESS 19
tone , that s d ifie ren t There bein ex

’
.
’
te n ua tin circums tances

’
The girl looked up quickly

—
.
“ ”
T here there weren t She said s im
’
,
“
—
I I just shot him
”
.
“
Ah g wan wid ye z ! He was thryin
’ ’
,
to attack ye O B rie n was talkin g

’
m ore to soothe her than to arrive at any

d e fin ite conclusion but she had grown sud ,
d e n l y calmer .
“
N 0 he was n t attacking me
,
— I
’
.
w ell I ve told you

,
’
—
I Shot him and I ve .
,
’
”
g iven myself up .
“
But surely
“
I m afraid I don t want to say anything
’ ’
e lse right now I believe there s no bail in ’

.
—
m u r in such cas es as this and I d rather
-
’
o u put me — wherever you re going to put ’
y
”
me . I m very tired
’
.
Larry scratched his head in bewilder

m ent .
“
If it was silf d efins e now
-
,
20 SI X SECONDS OF DARKN ES S
“
I m afraid it was n t And I d prefer
’ ’
.
’
n ot to say anything else .
If there s something we can be af ther

’
’
doin
Another car whi rred to a stop outside ,
and a slender man clean shaven and

-
,
rather boyish of appearance entered th e ,
hall There was something aggressive in

.
hi s calm blue eyes an d in the carriage of his

small well set frame Some of the police
-
, .
men seeing him jerked to attention an d

, ,
touched their hands to the visors of their

caps But O Brien was too dazed even
.
’
for that .
“
Good avenin sor was his greeting ’
, . .
Police Commissioner Clement Hall

looked up sharply Then his eyes lighted .
on the pitiful figure of the girl in evening

dress Instantly his frigidity of manner
.
dropped and he took her hand in both of

,
his .
“
E unice ! You v e given us a fright
’
fu l scare I stopped at the house and

.
,
S I X SE CONDS OF DARKN ESS 21
‘
the y told me that you had gone som ewhere

”
in the car .
“
Yes ; I came here to tell
“
They knew about it my girl Mrs , . .
F aber telephoned me and I got in touch ,
w i th them We ll go back
.
’
“
—
No I m going to stay
’
.
“
N o you d better come back ; or if you
,
’
d o n t want to re turn to the hous e you can

’
com e with me Mrs Hall will look after

. .
”
y o u for a few days .
“
You don t understand she explained
’
,
“ ”
sl owl y . I m a prisoner
’
.
“ ”
A prisoner ? Hall forced a smile to
his lips .
“
— —
I m afraid the <r a tragedy
’
”
has worked on your nerves .
“
—
My nerves are very good You see .
,
She was shaken with a sudden

paroxysm of sobs and the police commis ,
s i on e r turned da z edly to Larry O B rien

’
.
“
What I s she talking about ?
“
That I dunno sor excip t that She came
, ,
in here a bit agone all shook up like ye see

22 SI X SE CONDS OF DARKNESS
her now sor and says that she killed Mr
, , .
p :
Hamilton
“ ”
What ? Good God ! Hall stared in
am azement and then voiced the thought
,
that was uppermost in the minds of each

“ ”
It s ridiculous !
’
I said as much sor ; but she says she ,
shot h im
“
I Shot him said E unice dully , Just .
a little whi le ago I came right down in .
”
the car to give myself up .
“ ”
Here ! Hall placed his hands p a
“
te rn al l y on her shoulders You are nu .
,
—
nerved and I m afraid not quite your ’
self You know that you didn t shoot Mr

.
’
.
”
Hamilton .
Again she was calm although her body ,
was still wracked by an occasional sob .
You mean that you think I did not

even after I say that I did ? That is very
f oolish Mr Hall
, I shot Mr Hamilton
. . . .
“
Come home with m e
Won t you understand ? They are to
’
SI X S ECONDS OF DARKNES S 23
hold me here They can t let me go ’

. .
There s no bail in such cases as this

’
I ad .
mit that I am unstrung but I haven t lost

’
my senses I Shot Mr Hamilton less than

. .
an hour ago You can tell the detectives

.
to come back — —
I I shot him in the
- .
”
dark !
“
In the dark ?
She passed a tired hand across her fore
head .
“
—
The lights went out fo r about six sec
onds . But I d rather not discuss it now
’
.
I wish you d call Mr D enson He is my

’
. .
lawyer as well as Mr Hamilton s Id ’ ’

. .
rather tell him about it I have a very bad .
”
headache .
Hall stared at her pop eyed

-
, .
he snapped telephone ,
Samuel R D enson to come here im m e di

.
atel y Say Miss D uval i s here and wants

.
to see him A t once you understand

.
, .
An d now E unice let me beg you to be

, ,
ca reful o f your words I am sure that .

24 SI X SECON DS OF DARKNESS
there is some dreadful m istake Y o u .
couldn t have k illed Mr Hamilton

’
.
“ ”
I did she repeated monotonousl y
, .
“
I killed hi m I d rather not talk about it
.
’
now I m very tired Won t you as k

.
’
.
’
—
them to pu t me somewhere by mysel f ?
—
Please you don t understand and I d — ’ ’
”
rather not discuss it now .
“ ’
Very well ; I ll take you to the chief 5 ’
office and try to make you comfortable I .
am sure that there is a mistake somewhere .
”
You had no motive .
“
Yes I had a motive , .
“ ”
And it was ? eagerly .
“
I d rather not talk about it now if you
’
please Won t you take me to that that

.
— ’
— room ?
He off ered her his arm in his most
courtly fashion and together they crossed ,
to the door of the chief s office O nce in ’

.
there she sank down on the couch

, .
“ ”
Now please go Mr Hall , . .
26 S IX SECONDS OF DARKN ES S
Oh ,
’
you m us t understand that I d ra the r
not be bothered ! It was all so quick and
so — so — horrible ! Go please ”
, .
The po lice comm issioner made his w ay

into the main room slowly He w as .
frowning with bewilderment The thing .
was beyond his powers of comprehension .
He could not understand the girl Un .
—
doubtedly she had shot Hamilton her re
iteration was too sincere But how ? O r.
why ? Above all why ?—

Hall had known Hamilton intimately
for twenty years He had known E unice
.
since her birth He had watched her gro w

.
through a skinny legged girlhood to a m ag

-
n ifice n t maturity He had been present

.
at the guardianship proceedings after the

death of her parents when by the will of
, ,
her father H amilton was made the girl s

,
’
guardian and trustee of her considerable

estate.
That she instinctively disliked Hamil

ton he had realized but a mere dis
,
SIX SECONDS OF DARKNESS 27
like does not usually lead to tragedy .
The y had never gotten along well together

—d espite the fact that the dead man had
been pas sionately fond of his young ward .
A s for her dislike for the man she had

killed that had dated back to childhood
, ,
an d ripened with the passing of years .
She had tolerated him because of her legal

s tatus in his household but she made no ,
s ecret of her aversion And now .
Why the thing was inconceivable

,
.
The group of thoroughly excited police

men divided into little kno ts as Hall ap
p e ar e d Then one
. of them cam e forward
an d touched his cap .
“
Mr Carroll is here sir He says you
.
, .
”
telephoned him .
“
Yes Show him into the office of the
.
”
chief of detectives .
Glad that he had something definite to

do Hall made hi s way to the room of the
,
chief o f detectives after first instructing

,
O Brie n to do nothing except by his orders

’
.
28 SIX SECOND S OF DARKNES S
O nce in the room he telephoned to Mrs, .
Faber housekeeper for the dead man

, ,
and requested that she come to police

headquarters at once Then he waited for .
D avid Carroll Clement Hall had great

.
faith in Carroll but he kn ew that the man

,
faced a difficult assignment an unusual ,
—
task that of plumbing the depths of the
mad impulse which must have prompted
E unice D uval to the shooting of her guard
1 an .
The door opened and Carroll entered ,
entered so silently that for a moment Hall

was not fully conscious of his presence .
The police commissioner laughed shortly .
“
If I didn t know you better Carroll
’
, ,
—
I d say that that was a pose of yours that
’
damnable pussy footed way you have of

-
getting about I don t wonder they call

.
’
”
you Silent Carroll Sit down . .
The detective obeyed Slumped down .
in the easy chair by the side of the chief s

- ’
desk he looked anything other than a f a

,
SI X SECONDS OF DARKNES S 29
mous detective His pink checked boy

.
-
,
ish face gave the lie to the actuality of his

thirty eight years his narrow Shoulders
-
,
gave no hint of the wiry strength they pos

sessed his baby blue eyes were partly
,
veiled by silky lashes D avid Carroll .
would have passed for anything anywhere

save a detective He was imm aculately .
dressed in the latest tight fitting clothes

-
,
his shoes were narrow and pointed he car ,
ried a light cane and wore his hair pompa

d ou re d .
Yet D avid Carroll was known in six

S tates as on e of the cleverest of private
detectives His inoffensive appearance
.
,
whi ch had proved a handicap to con fi

dence at the outset of his career was not ,
his greatest asset He had a way of insin.
u ati n g himself into one s consciousness

’
w ithout saying a word or making a physi

cal motion One could easily fancy him a
.
co llege senior or a cub of a lawyer ; but a

,
d etective never, .
3 O SIX SECONDS OF DARKNESS
Immediately on hearing of Hamilton s ’
murder Hall had telephoned Carroll

, .
The men had worked together in the pas t .
and Carroll s assistance had been enlisted

’
by the Civic Reform League during the

past few months for the purpose of collect
ing data against certain members of the p o
lice force and the city hall officials F or
- .
that reason if for no other the man was i n

, ,
tensely unpopular at headquarters yet h e

carried himself with an attitude of confi
dence which begot respect even where it i n
spired fear Hall leaned forward and
.
launched into his story ; the news of H am

i l ton s killing the telephoning to the p o
’
lice department and the assignment of

,
Rollins to cover the case ; then the startling

confession of Eunice D uval Finally he .
finished .
“
I had intended putting you in charge
”
of the case over Rollins head he said
’
, ,
“
but of course Miss D u v al s confession al
’
’
ters matters I ll have to engage you pri
.
SI X SECOND S OF DARKNESS 3 1
v a te l y
to collect evidence which will result
in her acqui ttal at the inevitable trial .
You have met her yourself and you know

,
it is absurd to thi nk that She would have

killed Hamilton wi thout good and suf
—
ficie n t motive though what that motive
could have been God only knows The
, .
man was my friend and while he was the

, ,
victim of a terri fic temper and strong pas

sions he was a gentleman and I cannot
, ,
im agine hi m giving cause for such a thing

— especially to E unice D uval ”
.
Carroll was not given to prodigality

of words His questions came slowly
.
,
drawlingly
“
Why especially E unice D uval
‘ ’
“
Because Hall flu shed The .
m an was a bachelor you know , And I .
fancy that he was very much in love wi th

E unice Her father h ad been his best
.
—
friend it had been one of those rare
friends hips which did not founder when
both men fell in love wi th the same
3 1 s rx SECONDS OF DARKNESS
woman D uval won her an d it seeme d
.
,
that the affai r cemented their affection .
E unice is a replica of her moth er b ut ,
Hamilton poor fellow never felt toward

, ,
her as a father toward a daughter although ,
he tried to make her think so It is an .
— —
other case of well he fell in love wi th
the reincarnation of the mother and his
”
best friend .
“
She didn t like him ?
’
N o Instinct probably She must

. .
—
have guessed that he loved her as a lover
loves and not as a father She barely tol
, .
c rated him He has spoken to me of the

.
matter many times It worried him

. .
There was no outspoken dislike but her at ,
titu de has always been such that he h as
been forced to remain constantly on h is

best behaviour in her presence Can t you .
’
understand the utter absurdity of her ple a

that she killed him ? There is a mistake ,
p :
there m us t be
“ p
Hmm . Carroll thrummed idly on
,
34 s 1x SECO ND S OF DARKNESS
It s a go You re in charge I ll no
’
.
’
.
’
tif y the chief of police as soon as he gets

— —
back to the city I ve wired for him and ’
I ll tell Barrett Rollins personally

’
.
Which reminds me that I d better tele ’
phone him to come in There s no use to .

’
have him continue nosing about Hamil

ton s home The coroner s probably there
’
.
’
by this time and I d better go there myself

,
’
.
Mrs Faber is leaving to come down here

. .
Carroll rose languidly .
“
Think I ll go with you You say Miss
’
.
D uval doesn t wish to make a statement

’
”
now ?
“
So she says I ve telephoned for Mr ’
. .
D enson her lawyer Probably after she

, .
sees him she ll be willing to give us details

’
regarding the shooting Until then you — .
know old man these things are the basis of

, ,
your profession but the thing has hit me ,
all of a heap And funny as it sounds

.
, ,
’
I m not nearly so shocked by the death of
my friend as I am by the confession of h is
SI X SECOND S OF DARKNES S 35
ward Of course can t app re ci

’
.
yo u
ate
“
I believe I can smiled Carroll , .
—
human you s e e quite h uman
,
”
.
“ ” “
Yes slowly s om e tim es I believe you
, ,
are . A t other times I am not quite sure

that you are not a fis h .
The men walked into the main hall to

receive the report of Sergeant Larry
O B ri e n that Mrs F aber had arrived and
’
.
had taken charge of E unice in the private

office of the chief In response to Hall s .
’
query via a patrolman as to whether she

, ,
c ared to see him E unice sent word that she

'
w ould have no statement to make until

a fter she had seen Mr D enson except that .
,
s h e repeated th e statement that she had
k illed Hamilton .
H all shrugged and turned to Carroll .
“ ”
You see she is very insistent
, .
“ ”
Yes returned Carroll significantly
, ,
p :
v ery
“
And now continued the commis
,
3 6 SIX SECOND S OF DARKNES S
s i on e r, to telephone Rollins Hello ! .
What s this ?
’
“ ”
This was a narrow shouldered s unk
-
,
e n chested rather wild eyed old man who

-
,
-
slouched into headquarters from the street .
His watery eyes blinked in the glare of the

brilliant light and h e eyed the crowd of
,
uniformed men dazedly From S ergeant .
O Brie n came a muttered

’
“
The owld geezer looks half cracked
’
.
The old man apparently upward of

,
sixty years of age appeared bewildered, .
He shifted uncertainly from one foot to

the o ther undecided as to What to do next
, .
Then he timidly inquired for the chief of

police .
“
N ot in the city answered one of th e
,
”
policemen What do you want ?
.
“
—
Who who is in charge here faltered
the old fell ow .
The policeman design ated Commis

s ion e r Hall and immediately the new
,
comer turned toward him His weak eyes .

SI X SECOND S OF DARKN ESS 37
ro ved here and there about the room ap ,
p a t ently unable to come to rest for any

tim e on any de finite obj ect Hall turned .
away quickl y .
“
Take charge of him O Brie n I ,
’
.
h aven t time to waste wi th

’
“ ”
I want to see you sir said the little
, ,
fellow My name is Badger F rederick

.
,
B adger .
Hall s subconscious mind vaguely te

’
called that the name was not unfamiliar .
F rederick Badger Badger ? Where had

.
h e heard the name before ?

He turned to the old man and touched
him gently on the shoulder .
“
’
I m the police commissioner Y ou .
”
w anted to see me privately ?
“
Yes sir ; if you re in charge here
,
’
.
“
I am Come this way Come along
. .
,
”
C arroll .
He led the way to the policemen s rest ’
r o om Badger following him timidly Car

, ,
ro ll bringing up the rear Hall closed the

.
3 8 S I X SECONDS OF DARKNESS
door carefully and faced the little fellow .
“ ”
What is it you wish ?
Badger cleared his throat ; he was very
ill at ease .
“ ’
I guess you ve heard my name from
”
Mr Hamilton sir ; haven t you ?
.
,
’
Hamilton ! Why of course Hamil , .
ton had spoken of some one named Badger .
Hall scrutinized the man with interest .
Why had he mentioned Hamilton of all ,
people ?
“
Well started Hall somewhat
brusquely and then at sight of the man s
, ,
’
pitiful dejection he softened his tone con

,
“ ”
s i d e rab l y
. What can I do for you ?
By way of answer the queer little fel,
low dived down into a capacious pocket of

his frayed summer coat And then Hall .
starte d back with an exclamation of sur

prise for from its depths Frederick Badger
,
produced an ugly revolver ! uite calml y .
he extended it to Hall .
“ ”
That s it sir
’
,
.
SI X SECONDS OF DARKN ESS 39
— —
That s that s what ?
’ ’
The revolver sir The one I used

, . .
Used for what ? Hall dimly real

i z e d tha t the little old man was driving at
something in connection with the Hamil
ton killing .
“
D idn t you know that M r Hamilton
’
.
”
h ad been killed ? he inquired anxiously ,
as though surprised that the police depart

ment should have so long remained in ig
n o rance of an important occurrence .
“
—
Yes yes we know that Mr Hamil
, .
ton is dead But what have you and this

.
g u n to do with it .
The answer of Mr Frederick Badger .
w as quite nai ve .
“ ”
You see he explained S lowly that is
, ,
”
th e re v olver I used when I killed him !
CHAPTE R 111
OR a fe w seconds Hall was

stunned by the import of the
words of the simple little man .
Then he was conscious of an insane desire

to laugh aloud He glanced at D avid
.
Carroll and saw the little detective star

,
ing keenly from his fishy eyes at the latest

personage to hold the centre of the stage in
the tragedy .
Then gradually Hall began to under

stand what the con fe s sm n of Frederick
Badger might mean to the girl in the other
room who had also confessed to the crime .
I f Badger had killed Hamilton then it fol

,
lowed as a matter of course that the girl

had not done s o Somewhere somehow
.
, ,
there was a mistake Then he was con

.
scious of the fact that Badger was talking .
40
Immediately Carroll made his way to a
telephone Wi thin th ree minute s he was
.
back .
“
That part of the story is true It s .
’
Simpson s pawnshop and he remembers

’
the sale distinctly O ne of those bullets

.
has been fired since the revolver was

”
bought He examined the g un closely
. .
”
It s a regulation police revolver too
’
, .
”
How can that be ? questioned Hall
sharply .
“
Some discharged policeman probably , ,
”
pawned his service revolver .
“ ”
Then the case is simple snapped Hall ,
“
hopefully The bullet which really
.
killed him can be identified by its size If .
this old man did it it will be proven b e

,
yond a doubt by the size of the bullet

”
found at the autopsy .
“
If I killed him ? echoed Badger .
D on t you understand
’
— I d id kill him .
That s what I came here to tell you I

’
.
bought the revolver and went back there

SI X S ECOND S OF DARKNES S 43
throu gh the garden and stood on the ver

anda and killed him — in the dark !
”
“
You Hall slapped his hand
“
against his knee . By George Carroll
, ,
that s the second person who has made

’
s ome reference to killing Hamilton in th e

‘
’
dark
Badger seemed a bit da zed at the te
f u sal of these men to take his confession of
m urder quite seriously Carroll was si
.
l e nt tight lipped keenly observant the

,
-
,
—
l e thal weapon held in his right hand .
O nce again the police commissioner took

s tock of the latest figure in the sensational
c as e
. The man seemed even smaller ,
w eaker and more dejected than when he

,
e xploded his confession of the crim e to
w hich some one else had already confessed .
H e was above all things meek ; meek and

, ,
i n tensely out of place .But he was de

te rm in e d that h e had killed Hamilton and ,
“ ”
w ith caus e ! That with cause feature of
the confession impressed Clement Hall .
44 S 1 x SE CONDS OF DARKN ESS
E unice D uval had refused to give details .
“
S uppose you tell us what happe ned to
night M r Badger he suggested
, .
, S tart .
“
”
at the beginning and tell us everyth ing .
The old man spread his sk inny fingers in

a helpless gesture .
“
There isn t anything to tell except that
’
”
I killed him and ran away .
“ ”
You ran away ?
”
Yes .
If you intended to come down here and

confess to the crime why d id you ru n
,
”
away ?
“
I was frightened The noise scared
.
—
me the noise and the dark ”
.
Here Carroll in terrupted his voice so ft,
an d soothing :
“
What do you mean by repeating that
you shot him in the dark ? Where was he
when you shot ?
“
In his living room on the other side of
th e big table I was on the veranda by th e
.
”
window .
“
You
shot through the window ?
“
Yes It was half open One sid e of
. .
it was open .
“
Now what about the darkness ?
You v e said twice that you shot in the
’
”
dark .
Badger pas sed a trembling hand across

his forehead .
“
That s the funn y part of it I took
’
.
careful aim at Mr Ham ilton and just be

.
,
fore I pulled the trigger the lights went

”
out.
The lights in the room where he was

”
stan ding ?
“
Yes sir ; they all went out and the
,
room was very dark Then in about fiv e

.
,
seconds they flashed on again and I saw

, ,
”
him fallin g and I ran away
, .
“
—
Did you hear anything else an oth er
”
shot ?
“
I don t k now Y ou see I wasn t
’
.
,
’
think in g about an yth ing except myself .
”
There might have been another shot .
'

“
Would you have heard it if there had
been
Badger stared at him blank ly .
“ ”
Maybe ; I don t know ’
.
Hall was settled back in his chair l is ,
tening amazedly to the dialogue The .
—
thing was ludicrous C arroll who looked ,
like a fussy college boy and was a truly

great detective discussing a case with a
,
watery eyed harmless appearing old man

- -
,
who confessed to murder The thing was .
not at all as it should have been ; there was

as little of the detective in Carroll s ap ’
p e a ran ce as there was of the murderer in

’
Badger s .
O f one thing Hall was already con

v in ce d that whether or not Badger had
, ,
killed Hami lton he was not quite sane

, .
There was an occasional gleam in his weak

’
old eyes when Hamilton s name was
mentioned that denoted a m ild form of
mania Carroll continued his question
.
mg
.
SIX SECONDS OF DARKN ESS
‘
47
“
Now suppose you tell us Mr Badger
, .
,
“
he said quietly why you killed Mr Ham
, .
ilton
“
Because I told him I was going to .
“ ”
When did you tell him that ?
“
Tonight about eight o clock He ’
.
laughed at me an d told me not to let a lit

tle thi ng make me try an ything foolish .
Then I went down to the pawnshop and

bought the revolver and went back and
”
shot him in the dark .
In the dark ! In the dark ! E unice had

“ ”
spoken of shooting in the dark .
“ ”
Why persisted Carroll easily did
, ,
y ou tell Mr Hamilton
. that you were going
to kill him ?
“
Because he Stole my money .
Hami lton stole your money ? burst

“
in Hall bru squely That s ridiculous !
’
.
The man was worth a fortune .
Again that flash of fury in Badger s e yes

’
- a fire spark that died out almost as soon
as born.
SIX SECONDS OF DARKN ESS
“ ’
I do n t care how much he had he in ,
“
s isted . He stole my money .
“ ”
When ?
Fifteen years ago .
”
D amned rot ! chortled Hall .
p
man is crazy .
;
“
Just a minute Mr Hall interrupted , .
,
Carroll “
Tell us all about it M r
.
, .
Badger .
“
—
He took my money it was on a prop
os ition to develop oil lands Then he said .
he sent down an engineer and the engineer

said there wasn t any oil there But I ’
.
—
knew I knew Badger rose to his
feet and as he talked his manner became
,
more violent and his voice rose to a cres

“
cendo I know how these rich men get
.
rich ! They steal their money from us

poor people He took all my money and
.
,
I know there was oil there He said there .
wasn t and all my money w as gone I

’
, .
as k ed him to give it back to me and he said ,
he was sorry but that he had lost th ree

,
5 ° s 1x SECONDS OF DARKNESS
Do you reali ze what this means for
”
you ?
Badger Shrugged .
“
There wasn t anything in life for me
’
anyway An d maybe it ll teach thes e rich

.
’
people a lesson I told him I was going to

.
kill him and then I went right down to the

,
pawnshop
“ ’
Yes yes ; we understand that We ll
,
.
hold you now I m sorry you had to shoot

.
’
him
Again Badger was on his feet .
“ ”
He stole my money ! He stole it !
Carroll reached over to the desk at which
Hall was S itting and pressed a buzzer .
“
Put him in charge of one of your best
” “
men personally he ordered , Se e to it .
that he is allowed to speak to no one N ot .
even to Rollins .
When Badger had been led away an d

the two men were alone Hall lighted a ,
cigar and puffed violently for a few m in

utes .
SI X S ECONDS OF DARKNES S 5 1.
”
Of cours e it s damned rot ! he said at
’
length .
“ ”
Wha t ? queried the detecti ve in a
mil d tone .
“
That fool notion that Hamilton stole
his mone y More than probably he went
.
to Hamilton with some wildcat scheme and
g o t some of Hamilton s money in on it ’

.
An d of course O h damn it all an y , ,
way ! It s my opinion that the man is

’
c raz y .
’
Carroll s answe r was as calm and steady
as though he were remarking on the
w eath er
“
Undoubtedly he is But crazy men .
c an kill people .
“
—
O f course he killed but E unice said
s he killed him .
“
H mph ! Suppose you go in and tell
’
M iss E unice that this man has confessed

an d see what she says As k her first if She .
k nows who Badger is ?

“ ”
If she ll see me’
Hall started for the.
5 1 SI X SECONDS OF DARKNES S
’
door .I can t make head or tail of it .
I ll tell her thoug

’
His knock was answered by Mrs F aber .

,
and only after pleading with the girl

through her did E unice consent to speak to
him .
He found her lying on the couch staring ,
dry eyed at the ceiling Her face was

-
, .
pallid and one hand hung limply over the

,
side of the couch She spoke wi tho ut .
turning her head

“
What is it Mr Hall ? , .
“
I hate to bother you E unice ; but ,
there s been a terrible mistake Somewhere

’
and I want you to help me out Tell m e .
first do you know of a man named F reder

,
ick Badger ?
S he turned her face to the wall .
I thought you wanted to see me abo ut

s omething important Mr Hall I m n ot ’
.
, .
at all well and I wish ,

“
But this is important ; really it is D o .
”
you know of him ?
SI X S ECONDS OF DARKN ESS 53
“ ”
Of course I do ! she s aid somewhat
sharply
“
He s been bothering M r M r
.
-
’
. .
Hamilton for years

-
They were in .
som e business deal togeth er Mr Hamil . .
”
ton thought h e was craz y .
“
I see .
“
And now if that s all you wanted to
,
’
know I wish you d go I don t want to ’ ’
, .
see an y one except Mr D enson He . .
hasn t come yet has he

’
,
“
No E unice please won t you take a
.
, ,
’
friend s advice and retract your con fes

’
s ion
“
O f course not ! I killed him That s ’
.
al l I have to say .
“
But you did not kill him said Hall ,
“
d esperately That man has already con
.
”
fessed to Mr Hamilton s murder ! .
’
The effect of his words was e lectri

'
ca l
. The girl s figure s tifl ened grew ’
rigid ; then in a flash she was on her

feet bosom heaving eyes flashing fists
, , ,
cl enched .
54 SI X SECO ND S O F DARKNES S
You re l ying ! ’
You know you are ly
ing .
Hall gave back a S tep .
“
E unice ! You know I m not H e has
’
.
”
confessed to the killing .
“ ”
It s a lie !
’
A pause and then ,
“ ”
What man ?
“ ”
Frederick Badger !
“
O oo
- - As suddenly as she h ad
risen She relaxed The light died from
, .
h er eyes She crumpled on the cou ch

. .
Why why didn t you say that?

— — ” ’
“
I did I explained That s why I
. .
’
asked you who he was If you ll with .

’
draw your confession now we ll probably ’
”
let you go home Badger killed him . .
She turned her haggard face to him .
I told you Badger is crazy I rep e at .
’
it He didn t kill Mr Hamilton I did
. . .
”
shot him with his own revolver !
“
But E unice ,
Mrs Faber she said weakly ple ase

.
”
, ,
‘‘
mak e Mr Hall go He means well bu t I

. .
,
S1x S ECONDS OF DARKN ESS 55
can
’
t stand much more of this .
—
I I ll go
’
”
to pieces again in a minute .
Hall was hurt He bowed in the girl s ’

.
direction .
“
I ll go Mrs F aber but there is a
’
, .
,
mis take She didn t kill Mr Ham ilton

.
’
. .
This man Badger insists that he did He .
b ought a revolver and went there an d shot

3)
The eyes of the little housekeeper

l ighted .
“
That explains the second shot .
“ ”
What second shot ?
“
There were two s hots sir I was in , .
m y room in bed —
I heard a shot that
.
e choed all around Then there was an .
o ther shot I put my wrapper on an d

.
,
wh en I got downstairs Mr Hamilton was .
— was She glanced significantly

toward the huddled figure of the girl on
“
the couch You understand sir
.
, .
“
Y e s I understand
, I think I do . .
Th e shot that echoed was th e one from i n

5 6 SI X SECOND S OF DARKNESS
side the room The other was from out

.
”
side What a mess !
.
He left the two women together and

told his story to Carroll .
“
That simplifies things said Carroll , .
We ll have an autopsy performed and

’
discover whether Hamilton was killed by a

bullet from a police revolver Badger s .
’
”
weapon was undoubtedly one .
Hall shook his head .
“
They re performing the autopsy now
’
,
“
he said but that will tell us nothing
, .
Th e girl says she used Hamilton s re

’
volver That revolver was a present to

.
—
him from me and it was the duplicate of
”
the one Badger used !
Hall shook his head .
“
That makes it a little harder An d .
Miss D u val Still refuses to go into d e a
tails ?
“
Yes She insists on seeing D en s on
.
first I can t blame her Poor little k id

’
. .
,
5 8 SI X SECON DS OF DARKN ESS
“ p
An d in response to Hall
a
Come 1n ’
command a young officer bu rst into th an
“
A young man to see you imm ediatel y,
Mr .
—
Hall he says you know him ; hL:
—
name is Harrelson Vincent Harrelson ”
.
Hall felt Carroll s eyes upon him an d ’
he gave answer to the unspoken query

“
Yes it s Vincent Harrelson the artist
,
’
, .
— —
I think mind you I don t know that he ,
’
”
was secretly engaged to E unice .
“
A a h ! Let s go see what he wants
’
- - .
Again the man they s aw did not fit into

the picture Artist he was but not at all
.
,
the painter depicted in fiction He was .
more than six feet in height broad of ,
S houlder and very deep of chest His big .

,
s oft brown eyes contained a strange light ;

,
there was suppressed excitement in h is

manner He made his way imm ediatel y
.
to Hall .
“
The y told me the chief of police was
”
out of the city and that you were here he ,
SIX SECONDS OF DARKN ESS 59
sai d swiftly the words almost tumbling

,
“
over one another. You know who I am
— and you know something about family
conditions
“
Yes I understand
, .
“
I just came in to give myself up sir
, .
About a n hour ago I quarreled with Mr .
—
H ami lton and I killed him !
”
CHAPTER I V .
UT of the stillness which fol

lowed the young m an s an ’
n ou nce m e n t came the m umbled
words of a policeman
“
Begor ra this murder is just on e
,
”
damned confession after another ! Then
“ ”
some one said Hush you fool ! and
,
there was quiet again .
Clement Hall was too startled for im

mediate speech His jaw dropped and hi s
.
figure slumped limply .The young man

stared at him in surprise and then curi ,
ou s l y at D avid Ca rroll who was eyein g

,
him with a deliberation which brought a

slow flush o f anger to the young ar tis t s ’
face He fidge te d uncomfortably F i

. .
n ally he broke out irritably :

“
What are you staring at ? An d why ?
By way of answer Carrol l flipped back
60
SIX SECONDS OF DARKN ESS 61
the la pel of his coat disclosing his badge

, .
Harrelson subsided Carroll spoke softly

.
“
This way young m an and you too
, , , ,
”
commissioner if you pleas e
, .
A battery of curious eyes followed th eir

p rogress across the sombre hall and as th e ,
d oor o f the rest room closed behind th em a

bedlam of comment and conjecture broke
loo se.
The case had piled sensation on sensa

ti on until it had long since pas sed the point
of plausibility Larry O Brien waxed
.
’
g arrulou s .
“
Be all the s aints tis spooky ! Usuall y
,
’
w hin a murder is done we hunt for the

g u i l t y
. T his time we have two guilt y
w ans and have to hunt for the innocent .
Be dad they lied whi n they said that won

,
”
de rs have ceased !
Meanwhile in the rest room D avid Car
, ,
ro ll was questioning Vincent Harrelson in

hi s habitual ca lm unperturbed way
, His .
firs t efiort was to discover if the young m an

'
62 SIX SECOND S OF DARKN ESS
kn ew that an y one else had confess ed .
“
You say you killed Ham ilton
“ ”
Yes .
Why ?
We quarreled when I visited his house
tonight We have quarreled seve ral
.
times before It is strictly a personal mat

.
ter I believe Mr Hall was sufficiently

. .
’
intimate at Ham ilton s home to under
stand .
Hall nodded .
“
I believe I do .
“ ”
You shot him in cold blood ? asked
Carroll deli berately .
The young man leaped to his feet .
“
Good God no ! We quarreled bit
,
te rly and he lost his head He hit me .
here . Harrelson exhibited a red spot on

“
his left check I grappled with him an d
.
he tore loose We were in the library

.
then He dashed to the table picked up

.
,
a paper weight and would have thrown it

,
at me but I held him When finally I let

, .
SIX SECON DS OF DARKNESS 63
himgo—an d it is more than pos sible that

—
I handl e d hi m a bit roughly he ran into
the next room and took a revolver from the
drawer of the table I grabbed his wrist

.
and got the revolver away from him .
Then it went ofi— how I don t kn ow ,

’
.
He fell and that s all

,
”
’
.
“ ”
Tha t s all 2’
”
Yes .
You re sure ?
’
The youn g man straightened nervously .
“
Say look here what are you driving
, ,
”
at? I ve told you that was all !
’
Apparently Carroll was looking at a s e t

of dominoes spread out on the table before
him . His next remark was as casual as a

comment on an item in the day s news
’
“
How about the switching off of the
”
l ights ?
But disin terested a he seemed he did
,
s
,
no t m is s the sudden pallor of H arre l s on s

’
ch ecks . The young man opened his

m outh to speak clos e d it again and rose
, , .
64 SI X SECO NDS OF DARKNESS
I don t know what you re talking

’ ’
about and I refuse to say anyth ing fur

,
”
ther !
Carroll s voice grew cold as steel
’
.
“
What about the switching off of the
” “
lights ? he snapped An d who fired the .
other Shot
Harrelson gripped the edge of his chair .
“
I have nothing further to say at this
time I ve told you I killed Mr H amil
.
’
.
ton and that s all I m going to tell you

,
’ ’
.
I wish you d put me in a cell or wherever

’
”
I am to be put .
“
You re a very foolish young man said
’
,
“
Carroll If I were you
.
“ ’
You re not And I ll be exceedi n gly .
’
obliged if you ll keep your advi ce to y our ’
”
self .
Clement Hall touched the artist on the

arm .
“
He s trying to help you Mr Harrel
’
, .
I haven t ask ed for help from any on e

’
.
66 SI X SECON DS OF DARKN ES S
Item number one retorted Carr ol ,

“
with sudden and incisive coldness It en .
n umber two is the fact that there were tw<

shots one evidently in the dark and o m
,
imm ediately after the lights were s witch e t

on Which shot if you please did y or
.
, ,
fire ?
“
I fired
the shot which killed Mr Ham .
ilton came the stolid answer

, .
“ ”
You are quite sure ?
You can prove it easily enough Get .
the bullet which killed him and see if it

does not fit his revolver That will an .
swer you I don t know anything about

.
’
”
any second shot .
You mean you won t tell ? ’
Have it your own way I ve said all .

’
I intend to .
“
Who else was in the room at the time of
the shooting
“
I have nothing more to say .
Carroll smiled .
“
That answer is perfectly satisfactory .
SI X SECOND S OF DARKNES S 67
“
Then to Hall I will hold this young
man in one of the cells under special guard .
No one is to be allowed to discuss the case

”
with him .Is that satisfactory ?
“
You re in charge Carroll My inter
’
.
,
”
est is far more personal than official .
A sergean t was called and the prisoner

plac e d in his charge with instructions
not to discuss any phase of the case with
him O nce alone the two men faced each

.
,
other and Carroll laughed shortly .
“ “
It is a poser he admitted
, . The most
interesting case I have ever worked The .
usual order of things is reversed We .
have three people claiming guilt for a

crime which only one could have c om mit
ted H mph That young man is very

'
’
.
~e r -tart .
“ ” “
Tem peram ent ! snorted Hall He s ’
.
”
an artist !
“
And I believe you said engaged to
, ,
Miss Duval
“
That s the bone of contention between
’
68 SIX SECONDS OF DARKN ESS
him and Ham ilton Ham ilton I suspect
.
, ,
was deeply in love with Miss D uval and

even under normal circumstances he would
n ot have been overly fond of the m an
whom she happened to love That then

.
, ,
was the case between them basically .
“
But Hamilton was s up e rcons cie n tious .
I believe he was broad enough to have

sanctioned her marriage with Harrelson
had he found no fault with the young man
personally But whether it was true or
.
—
not whether or not it was just he was
,
sincere in the belief that Ha rrelson was

after Miss D uval s money that he was
’
worthless personally that he was lazy and

, ,
”
that he was rather much of a Lothario .
“
—
H mm ! His temperament would it
be of the kind
“
I know exactly what you are think ing ;
you re wonderi ng whether he would be
’
quixotic enough to surrender himself for

a crime the girl had comm itted ? I sn t ’
that it ?
SIX SECOND S OF DARKN ESS 69
“
Yes .
“
I don t know He might and he might
’
.
not
. O n the o ther hand he has exhibited ,
a certain strength of character in givin g
himself up at all especially if a rigid in

,
vesti ation would have implicated her

g .
”
He could have gotten away .
“ ”
I m not so sure said Carroll Slowly
’
, .
“
And remember this that if he told us the
,
strict and whole truth — which he quite evi

dently did not— no jury in the world
would convict him of anything But .
there is something wrong s omewhere He .
may have lied as to the darkn ess and the

second shot in order to s hield the girl On .
the other hand he may have killed the man

,
hims elf formulated this self defence

,
-
story and thought to blu ff it out I don t ’
, .
know the significance of the sudden dark

ness at the time of the shootin g but that it ,
did have something to do with it I am

”
s ure .
“
That whole phas e of it snapped Hall ,
7o SI X SFL ONDS
‘
OF DARKN ESS
somewhat irritably strikes me as sill y ,
Who would have turned out the lights it

the room at that particular time and why? ,
Certainly it was no time for domestic pyro

technics And besides while we are dis
.
, ,
cussing whether Miss D uval or Harrelson

may be the guilty one we have completely ,
forgotten old man Badger the one person ,
who has supplied confession motive evi , ,

”
dence and testimony
, .
“
-
,
—
N o o Mr Hall I hadn t quite forgot
.
’
ten Badger Without him the case is com

.
—
plicated enough With him it is e r .
—
interesting very interesting I suggest
, .
that you telephone D octor Robinson ; he

should have found the bullet b y this
time .
Doctor Robinson had found the bullet

and Doctor Robinson was desirous of com
ing down to see Mr Hall imm ediately . .
He came and a quick and thorough exam

,
ination showed that the lethal bullet wa s
of the s ame calibre as that used in the offi

s rx SECONDS OF DARKN ES S 7 1
c i al p olice revolvers Hall looked at Car

.
r oll and Carroll looked at Hall .
“
It would have been queer remarked ,
“
Carroll easily if something had turned
,
up to bewilder us more A lthough that

.
would have been well nigh impossible

- .
Hall laughed Shortly He questioned .
the doctor
“
The man was only shot once ; you are
”
q uit e sure ?
“
Just once I am positive of it
. .
“
Where was he Shot
“
Through the heart The bullet e n
.
tered his left S ide .
“
Would you say after close investiga
,
” “
tion doctor
, questioned Carroll that the
, ,
bulle t that killed him was fired from very

”
close to him 2
Doctor Robinson looked up in some

sur rise
p .
“
Why no ; I should say most emphat
,
ically that it was fired from a distance ”

.
“ ”
The dis tance of a few feet ?
7 1 SI X SECOND S OF DARKN ESS
More than that I do not pretend to
.
be an expert in such matters but I shoul d ,
hazard a guess that the person who killed

hi m fired from a distance of at least
twenty fiv e feet
- .
Carroll thanked the doctor briefly and

requested him to take charge of the b ody
with the coroner After the man of medi
.
cine had gone Hall sank weakly into a

,
chair and spread his hands helplessly .
“
I give it up altogether he said hope
,
“
lessly . He is certain that the bullet was
fired from a distance Badger s bullet ’
.
was the only one fired from a distance .
E unice D uval insists that she was in the

room with him and while she gave no de
, ,
tails she led us to believe that they w ere

,
close together Harrelson maintains that

.
they were struggling when the shot was

fired . E vidence of that would have been
—
unmistakabl e powder marks and the sear
of the flame I am convinced that Har
.
t elson confessed to save E unice although ,

74 SI X SECONDS OF DARKN ESS
v ance d theories none of which do I be
,
”
lieve .
“
Then for God s sake tell me what y ou ’
”
d o believe !
“
I prefer not to I d rather work the .
’
case my own way It ought not pro v e .
a very di fficult task to disclose the inn o

”
cence of those who are innocent .
“
And we have the guilty one dead to
”
rights ?
“
Yes we have the guilty one dead to
,
”
rights .
“
—
I I m glad you re in charge of th e
’ ’
,
—
case Carroll You re so so d amne d— .
’
impersonal
“
That s my business Just at presen t
’
.
I m willing to admit frankly that being

’
,
only human I m about as confused as you

,
’
are I want to get off by myself and

.
think Which I cannot do with that in

.
fe rn al noise dinning in my ears .
The noise was the clanging of the police

patrol which swung in from the street to
th e courtyard gong clanging and m umer

,
c u t out . Carroll and the police commis

s ion e r strolled to the windo w and gazed
o u t into the stone flagge d courtyard sur

-
r ounded by its austere greystone wall and
be yond that a frame of trees garlande d

with the fresh leaves of early s ummer It
w as Hall who recognized the man in
ch a rge of the wagon .
“ ”
By George it s Barrett Rollins !
,
’
Carroll evinced sudden interest .
“ ”
So it is he said quietly eyeing the
, ,
h e avy set form of the chief of the regular

-
“
detective force And he s got a wounded
.
’
man in that wagon I wonder if he s been .

’
using his revolver again to bring down

some poor suspect That s a habit of his .
’
— firing his revolver rather in dis crim

”
inate l y .
“
He s been on the carpet for it a half
’
” “
dozen times answered Hall
, I wonder .
now
“
I suggest that you have him s en t in
76 SI X S ECON DS OF DARKN ESS
“
here said Carroll
, He may have som e
.
”
thi ng of interest to tell us .
In response to orders Barrett Rol l in s ,
e ntered the room a f e w m inutes l a te r .
But he was not alone .
With him was a huge man lantern ,
j awed shaggy haired and with glowing

,
-
,
e yes which flamed from beneath heavy
lashes Rollins attitude was one of tri

.
’
umph th en he flushed wi th sudden fury

as his eyes fell on the figure of Carroll .
But Carrol l was staring at the bloo d

stained bandage around the han d and
w rist o f the prisoner .
“ ”
What you doin here ? Rollins de ’
m an de d grufl y .
Carroll shrugged .
“
You might ask Mr Hall . .
Hall spoke softly :

“
I ve placed Mr Carroll in charge of
’
.
the Hamilton case Rollins Abso lutely

, .
”
in charge .
Ro llins face took on a sneer

’
.
SI X SECONDS OF DARKNES S 77
“
You can let your fin e Sherlock Holmes
” “
g o
, he said triumphantly Because the
.
case is solved This here man is Red

.
Hartigan alias Ri o Red alias Pete Harti

, ,
gan
“ p :
Yes yes
, . Hall was leaning forward
”
anxious ly . What about him ?
Rollin s chuckled .
“ ”
R e d H artigan he exulted is the
, ,
man who m urdere d Mr H am il ton 7 ”

. .
CHAPTE R V
H OARS E cry broke from th e

lips o f the wounded prisoner .
He to re away from his captor

an d stepped forward swiftly waving the ,
s tained bandage in the ver y face of Hall
and Carroll .
“ ”
It s a damned lie ! he croaked hoarsel y
’
.
“
I was in that house an I was in th ere
,
’
to steal but I didn t kill and when he

’
, ,
s ays I did he lies

p a
Hall was conscious of one rather ridicu

—
lous thought he was relieved that one
person at least protested inno cence .
Rollins reached out a sinewy arm a n d

w rapped his fingers aro und the prisoner s
’
u ninjured wrist .
“
Keep a civil to ngue between them
d am ned crooked lips o f yours Hartigan , .
78
s rx SECOND S OF DARKNESS 79
You can t get away wi th such stuff as

’
that .
Carroll was apparently not at all inter

es te d in the prisoner o r his captor He .
was scribbling on a bit of paper and at ,
length he s lid it across the table toward

Hall Rollins caught the bit o f byplay
.
and scowled darkly at the little detective .
Hall read
“
Le t m e handl e this . R ol l ins is to
k n ow nothing at all about B adge r . I
wil l hav e Badger r e m ov e d at once .
Hall no dded and im mediately Carrol l

,
reclaime d the paper which he tore into,
tiny bits and carefully placed in a vest

p ocket The .whole t hing w as done in the
most casual manner Rollins voiced a
.
sneer
“
O ld sleuth ! Behind time as usual , .
“ ”
I d be a bit mo re civil Rollins said
’
, ,
“
Hall sharpl y Until I choose to remove
.
him Mr Carrol l is your s upe rior officer

, .
”
and must be accorded due respect .
Rollin s Shrugged .
“ “
Obedience he ll
’
get he rasped but , ,
respect I ll not give him I ve only con

’
.
’
”
tempt for such as him .
“
I tell you but Carroll put a quiet ,
r estraining hand on Hall s arm

’
.
“
N0 use to get excited Mr Hall I , . .
can well understand how Rollins feels at

having a rank outsider brought in and put
’
o ver his head I think we ll get along
.
better when he understands that I am

”
working with him and not against h im .
The detective rose and crossing the , ,
r oom placed himself squarely in front of

,
Rollins . He spoke quietly and force

fully
“
I want you to understand Rollins , ,
that we re not to pull against each other

’
.
You don t like me and I can t say that

’ ’
I m wasting any love on you But this is

’
.
not a personal matter and I d rather work ,

’
it as your ally I m perfe ctly willing to

.
’
listen to your advice and I haven t a do ubt

,
’
Rollins was m ollifie d in spite of him

self He seated himself and motioned the
.
captive to a chair Much of the aggros

s i v e n e ss had dropped from his grim visage
as he prepared for Carroll s quiet question ’
ing .
Suppose yo u tell us why you think thi s

”
man Hartigan killed Mr Hamilton ? sug
.
gested Carro ll .
“ ”
S ure ! Rollins lighted a rank brier
and launched into his story
It s this way When I gets to the
’
.
,
—
house the first thing I fin d out this bein ’
from the old dame who ran the shebang

—
for Hamilton is that there was two shots
”
fired ; get that ?
“
Yes .
I poked my nose in on the doc whot
was making the autopsy and he tells me ,
the man was shot only once So right

away I get busy I go into the room an d
.
fin d things just as they was with some one

havin g had sense enough to mark the spot
on the floor where the man fell It s a big .

’
room with a door opening o n to a large
veranda on the south S ide Beyond that a .
g arden N ext to .the door o n e of these

here big F rench windows Then an L in .
the veranda and another F rench windo w
facing east .
“
Right in the angle of the room is one
of these here fancy screens The windo w .
was open First crack out of the bat I

.
find a police revolver on the floor Here .
”
1t 1 s .
He tossed a blue steel w eapon on the

“
table As yo u ll see one chamber has
.
’
been fired That revolver was half

.
way betw een the centre table and the

screen I step behin d the screen and I
.
,
find this bird lying there w ith a hole in his

wrist —
By his side is this gun another
.
police revolver ”
— h e laid a s econd weapon
beside its twin and that also has been , ,
’
ex loded once It s the one t his bu ko
p . c
”
used . Se e ?
p :
It s a lie broke out Hartigan desper
’
“
ately I didn t even carry a gun
.
’
.
“
Keep your mouth shut We ll let you ’
talk later As I was sayin in the screen

.
’
I fin d a bullet hole and the case is simpl e ,
as A B C Right alon gside Hartigan is a

.
bundle of swag What happened was .
that he was cle an in out the house when ’
Hamilton hears a noise ; Hartigan ducks

behind the screen but Hamilton k nows ,
he s there Hamilton takes a pot shot at

’
.
him an hits him in the wrist ; Hartigan

’
shoots back and kills his man An d if that .
nee ds more exp lainin I don t see where t ’ ’

1
”
comes in .
Carroll spoke without raising his eyes

“
You are sure these are po lice revolvers ,
”
Rollins ?
“
Sure as I am that you re sitting there
’
.
'
Hmm Where did you get thi s gun ,
Hartigan ?
The prisoner shook his head hopelessly .
“ ’
I m telling youse I didn t have no gat ’
.
srx S ECONDS OF DARKN ES S 85
I ain t never carried one Rollins k nows

’
.
that as well as I do ; he s got a line on all ’
of us yeggs an he knows them that carries

’
and them th at don t A burglary ’
gun s .
char e I don t mind f acin but murder

’ ’
g ,
no .You go ask my pals if they ve ever ’
known me to carry a gun ; they ll tell you

’
”
not .
“
Suppos e you tell us what happened .
The confessed burglar leaned forward

ea e
g rly .
“
It was this way . A pal o mine and ’
me 3,
“
Who ?
Hartigan flushed
“ ’
I ain t no squealer ;
.
A pal o
’
y an fin d that out for yourself

’
e .
mine frames with me to crack this Hamil

ton crib We go in together leav in a ’
.
,
lookout b y the road in front of the garden .
I get one bag of loot and he gets the other .
It s all framed that I m to go out through

’ ’
the winder of that room I get in there .

,
and right away I hear two fellers scrap

86 SIX S ECOND S OF DA RKNES S
pin in the next room I duck behind
’
.
screen The two guys come fightin i

.
,
’
the room
“
N obody else in there ?
Yes ; that s the funny part Jus t
’
.
they come in battin hell out of each ot

,
’
o n e of em bein Hamilton an the o t

’ ’ ’
-
—
one a big man I don t know a girl s t ’
ou t from behind some curtains over
window in the other corner of the roon

over beyond the door .
“
Hamilton breaks loose from the
feller and makes a jump for the ta!
He yanks a gun outa the drawer .
man gets him before he can Shoot T .
scrap around ; then all of a sudden it g

dark and I hear two Shots and I get th
, ,
“
He held up his wrist I hang on th .
for a while afraid they re going to 1

,
’
me I feel right sick so I lay down e

.
,
on the floor Then I don t reme mber a

.
’
”
thing else unti l this bull pointin g to I ,
“
l ins has me in the horspital gettin fi
’
,
SI X S E CONDS OF DARKN ESS 87
up. Then he brings me here An that s .

’ ’
the truth S help me Gawd

’
Carroll nodded briefly .
“
Call Cartwright will you Rollins ? , ,
Rollins did as bidden and into Cart ,
wright s custody the prisoner was given

’
wi th explicit instructions not to allow him

to speak of the case to any one Then
Carroll excused hims elf called a young ,
g of his who wore the uniform f

'
p ro te é o
the force and this man he placed on special

,
duty before the concrete cell in which

Badger had been placed .
“
Under no circums tances he ordered , ,
is any o n e to be allowed to talk to th is

man . If he wants anything or insists on ,
seeing some one call me Understand

,
? .
—
No one Rollins or even the chief of po
”
lice I m in charge of the case Get it ?
’
. .
The young officer nodded .
“
I understand Mr Carroll He ll not
, . .
’
be allowed to talk to any one I ll stick .

’
right here .
88 SI X SECON DS OF DARKN ES S
Good ! I ll remember you And I n ’
.
’
trusting you You re not even to talk tc

.
’
him yourself If any one asks who is i1

.
”
here refuse to answer
, .
Carroll returned to the rest room Hal .
was sitting as Carroll had left him at th

, ,
«
big domino table Rollins slouched b .

:
the window staring at nothing F inal h

, .
he turned and addressed Hall

“ ’
That s all isn t it
’
Better ask Carroll Rollins , .
”
How about it Carroll ? ,
“ ’
I m afraid it isn t Rollins There
’ ’
, .
more to the case than you seem to kn ow .
“
It s Open and shut There s your tw
’
.
’
shots ; Hartigan popping at Hamilton at

Ham ilton at him They both hit an on .
’
’
of em croaks The man s story about th
’
.
—
fight and all that is a rotten lie thinner :
’
w ater My Gawd I don t see what els ’

. ,
you could want ! His story don t hold fo ’
a minute
“
Y e e e s I believe it does
- -
, What yo .
99 s rx SECONDS OF DARKNESS
There s no question that it was fired By
’
.
the way where did you fin d H artigan s

,
’
revolver ? D idn t you say it was in his

’
”
pocket ?
Rollins answered very slowly
“
Yes it was in his pocket I found it
, .
”
there.
“
I suppose he put it there after he shot
at H amilton He was quite conscious ; he
.
admitted that when he said he felt him

self getting weak and laid down gently so
they wouldn t hear him fall Yes he
’
.
,
must have shot Hamilton .
Rollins stared keenly at the other .
“
Sure he shot Hamilton ! What gets
,
me is this man and the girl giving them

selves up an saying they done it Who
’
.
”
are they ?
“
Hamilton s ward Miss E unice D uval
’
, ,
”
and a young artist named Harrelson .
Vincent Harrelson
”
Yes .
srx S ECONDS OF DARKNESS 9 1
“
Him and her is pretty good friends ,
”
ai n
’
t they ?
—
Yes why do you ask ?
“
Nothin only it strikes me that maybe
’
b (1th are
Hall broke in shortly
“
People don t usually go around trying
’
t o faste n the crime of murder on their own

l l e ads Rollins
,
”
.
“
NO 0
-
“
You re quite sure persisted C arroll
’
, ,
that you found that revolver in Harti

”
g an s
’
pocket ?
Rollins rose to his feet .
“
S ay what th hell you harping on that
’
f or ? O f course I found it in his pocket .
I t was there when I drug him from behi nd

t h e sc reen Thought he d croaked until I ’
.
s ee n he d only keeled over from loss of

’
”
b lood It was him that done it all right
.
, .
“
It looks that way But why the con .
f essions o f Miss D u v al an d H arrelson

9 2 SIX SECOND S OF DARKNES S
Rollins pondered deeply and then s ud ,
d en l y he smiled with the light of inspira

tion .
“ ”
Cinch !
How ?
There s most likely something between
’
.
—
them They was both there p rov idin ’
what Hartigan says is true Th ere was a .
lot of excitement The girl thinks the .
man done it an the man thinks the girl

’
did an each one is sayin that the o ther

,
’ ’
done it so s to save em You read about

’ ’
.
”
th at all the time .
Carroll thought deeply Then he .
brought his fis t down on the table with a

crash .
“
You re right Rollins ! You must be
’
right ! They all say that the lights went

ou t j ust when th e shooting took place and ,
both Miss D uval and Mr Harrelson think .
that the other did it So they both con .
fess I t S S imple I take my hat OE to

.
’
.
I ll confess f rankly that I never

’
y ou .
SI X SECOND S OF DARKNESS 93
would have thought of it I think you ve .

’
”
solved it .
Rollins flushed with pardonable pride .
“
Us regular bulls ain t the fools we re ’ ’
”
given credit for bein Mr Carroll he ’
, .
,
said respectfully glowing under the

, ,
“
other s praise
’
All you gotta do now is
.
tell em about Hartigan and you ll see em

’ ’ ’
withdraw their confessions so quick it ll

’
make your head swim Y s ee Mr Hall .

’
, .
,
there wasn t no need for having any one

’
—
else in on the case not that I m sore at ’
Mr Carroll here He s man enough to

. .
’
”
admit I got the goods right .
Carroll rose and extended his hand .
Rollins crushed it in a viselike grip .
“
You re all right Rollins I a dm it it
’
, .
”
cheerfully .
“
Thanks Mr Carroll An d there ain t
, . .
’
no hard f e e lin s over my bein sore at

’ ’
”
you ?
“
N ot a one I understand it perfectl y
. .
And n ow suppose you look after Hartigan .

94 SI X SEC ON DS OF DARKN ESS
I want to get things straightened up w ith
Mr Hall He s a personal friend of Miss
. .
’
”
D uval and he ll have to tell her himself
,
’
.
“
That s all right Good night gentle
’
.
,
”
men ! And Barrett Rollins chief of the ,
plain clothes s tafl bowed hims elf out

-
, .
For a while Carroll stared at the door

through which he had gone and then he ,
s ank into a chair and thrummed on the
table Hall leaned forward very much

.
,
puzzled .
“ ”
What s the idea ? he asked Y ou
’
.
”
certainl y don t think the case is finished ?
’
Carro ll laughed sharply .
“
Certainly not It s just begun .
’
.
O f cou rse it might be that Hartigan

killed Mr Hamilton and the two young
.
”
people confessed to save one ano ther .
“ ” “
It might be said Carroll Shortl y but
, ,
I m very much of the Opinion that it isn t

’ ’
.
—
You see Mr Hall you are completely
, .
o verloo king a certain Mr F rederick Bad .
”
g e r !
CHAPT E R VI
ALL Opened lips to speak his ,
closed them suddenly withou t

uttering a sound and then ,
r e peated the fishlik e motion Carroll .
l a ughed .
“
It is grim but it s funny he remarked
,
’
, .
“ ’
—
It s damnable ! Yes sir that s the , ,
’
W ord for it Here we have three people

.
c onfessing to a crime and a four th hedged
a bout with almost incontrovertible cir
c um s tan ti al evidence An d n ow my pet

.
”
t h eory is exploded .
“ ”
Which is ?
Was correcte d Hall that Badger
”
, ,
”
d id the fatal shooting .
“’
I m afraid Mr Hall said Carroll
, .
,
“
kindly that you are read y to fasten the
,
guilt on the one sus pect most likely to be

95
96 SI X SECOND S OF DARKN ESS
freed by a jury Undoubtedl y Badger is

.
demented I ve seen men wi th the same

.
’
look and the y were not men who were

,
mentally normal And now let me tell .
you what I have done so that you will play

your cards accordingly N0 one here ex .
cept you and I kn ow that Badger has con

fessed to the crime I want no one else to .
”
kno w it .
“
E unice D u val has been told .
Rollins must not be allowed to talk to
Very well .
—
What you say goes in
this case But why keep Rollins in the
.
dark ? D on t you belie ve his story abou t

’
H artigan
“
I believe everything and I believe
nothing N or have I drawn any definite
.
conclusions as yet I admit frankly that .
I am up in the air for a solution of the mys

te ry — as much as you are The girl tells .
—
a straight story such as it is Harrel .
s on s story is also straight an d one reas on

’
,
lips of top Sergeant Larry O Brien Ou ’

.
ders were left that no one was to be al

lowed to see the girl or Harrelson u ntil
Hall s return exception being made in the
’
case of Mr S amuel D enson E unice s law

.
,
’
yer As the two men turned toward the

.
d oor Barrett Rollins rose to greet the m

, .
“ ”
Going ? be queried idly .
Hall nodded .
“
I ll be back
’
.
“
An d you Carroll ? ,
The little detective smiled geniall y .
“
O h I m trotting along ! I m afraid
’ ’
you knocked my props from under with out

”
giving me a chance to prove my ab ility .
Rollins grinned .
“
Blarney ! Good night to you
”
Good night !
The doorkeeper saluted as they passed
out and Hall seated himself at the wheel
,
of his giant roadster ; Carroll curled up in

the deep upholstery beside him H all .
pressed the starter and the rhythmic h um

,
s rx SECONDS OF DARKN ESS 99
of the motor answered immediately ; and

th e car rolled smoothly and silently down
the tree lined avenue

- .
N ei ther man spoke Hall on his part

.
, ,
was busy driving and his thoughts were

,
too wildly chaotic to permit of coherent

reasoning But Carroll took advantage
.
of the sudden removal from the scene of

p o lice activities to catalog the events of
the night .
From a wide macadam roadway Hal l ,
braked his car suddenly and swung in

through a large tree studded lawn For
-
, .
the first t ime since leaving the police sta

tion Carroll spoke
,
“
This is the house ?
”
Yes .
S top a minute please , .
As the car came to a halt a man in civil

ian s garb detached himself from the shad
’
o ws and joined them Then he recog

.
ni z ed Hall and saluted punctiliousl y .
“
Mr Rollins has three of us detailed
.
5
Il oo SI X SECONDS OF DARKNESS
“
h ere to watch sir he explained
, , Tw .
outside an d one inside We re to keep re .

’
”
porters away .
Hall nodded .
“
That s right This is Mr D avid Car
’
. .
roll He s in charge of this case and is t

’
h ave the right of way You may pass th .
”
word to the other men on duty here .
The policeman strode away and the tW 1
men left the automobile and trod the sof

grass of the lawn .
To the right of the house there was

tennis court and to the left a lawn dotte : ,
with trees and bushes and extending m or ,

'
than two hundred yards to a brick wal

which dropped Sheer on the pavement .
“
Is this the only hous e on this side 0 ‘
” “
the street ? asked Carrol l I v e beer .
’
”
here before but I didn t notice details
,
’
.
“ ” “
Yes came the prompt answer
, Th . t
house stands about the middle and th ,

‘
property covers the entire square bl ock

”
H amilton was a very rich man .
1 02 SIX SECONDS OF DARKN ES S
on al lyopposite the corner of the dining
room and living room .
Carroll paced the veranda slowly then ,
shook his head .
“
It s too dark out here Hall S uppose
’
, .
we go inside and look around .
Hal l led the way m ade his mis s ion

,
kn own to the policeman on duty inside ,
gave orders that they were not to be dis

turbed and closed the door of the livin g
,
room behind them .
“ ”
Where is the light ? questioned Car
roll with peculiar earnestness .
Hall scratched a match against his Shoe .
It flickered up quickly illuminating the ,
darkn ess wi th a ghastly glare and an ar

r ay of dancing shadows Then guided b y
.
,
its feeble light he walked unerringly

,
across the room His fin gers found th e

.
-
electric light switch pressed it and th e
, ,
room was bathed in light .
But Carroll was gaz ing only at the l ight

s witch .
-
It was the usual two button af
srx S ECONDS OF DARKN ESS 163
fair situ ated midway between an oak pan -
ell e d door and a large French window near
1
the corner of the room He questioned .
quietly :
“
That window leads to the veranda ?
Y es .
And the door ?

“
Into the dining room .
“
You are familiar with the hous e ?
”
Yes .
“
What lies beyond the dining room ?
“
The butler s pantry and the kitchen
’
on this side of the hous e if that is what ,

”
you mean .
“
—
Y es that s all I m interested in at
’ ’
present H ow far back does the veranda

.
”
run ?
“
To the end of the dining room .
H m m ! And didn t I notice a screen

’
protecting the corner of the veranda where ,
it j uts in
“
Yes It has onl y been up there s ince
.
”
the beginnin g of summer .
1 94 S1x SECONDS OF DARKN ES S
”
Good ! Carroll stared reflectiv e l y at
the little electric buttons a nd then al
,
lowed his eyes to rove about the walls .
“
Is there an y other electric switch in this
”
room ?
“
—
N o that is I am pretty sure there
,
’ ”
isn t .
Carroll acted wi thout speaking With .
meticulous care be searched the walls for

,
signs of another electric control button .
He found none Nor was there any elec

.
trol ier which might have furnished the
light Hall caught the trend of hi s inter

.
est and questioned him

“
S till harping on that s udden p e riod of
”
darkness ?
“ ”
Yes ans wered the detective briefly
, .
- —
It strikes me as rather e r peculiar .
Having satisfied hims elf that there was

no other electric switch in the room Car ,
roll walked to the middle and surveyed the

scene of the k illing .
The room was a large one an d ve ry

1 06 SIX S ECONDS OF DARKNESS
m ade his way A careful examination dis
.
c losed a bullet hole in the screen He rose .
and measured .
“
Just about high enough for a bullet
coming through to have hit Hartigan in the
“
wrist he observed
, This is quite evi .
d e n tl y the screen behind which Hartigan

was hidden The blood traces are still
.
here His story holds good as to those

.
features N ow let s see where Hamilton

.
’
”
fell .
They found the spot on the other side

o f the room near the library door care ,
fully marked out in chalk and identi fied

b y the bloodstains .
“
That tallies too said Hall , E spe , .
c ial l y with the S tories told by Hartigan
a nd Mr Harrelson . See the drawer of .

,
the centre table is open ; that s where both ’
”
m e n say the revolver came from .
“
If you will Mr Hall step behind that
, .
,
s creen and look at me as I S tand here See .
”
i f you can discern me through the screen .
SI X S ECONDS OF DARKNESS 16 7
Hall did as bidden and retu rned in a
minute .
“
I could see you but only faintly The
, .
screen is nearly opaque but the bright ,
light from the chandelier makes vision pos

sible here .
“
Could you see well enough to aim ac
curate l
y
“
Im not a good shot Try it yourself
’
. .
Carroll stepped behind the screen afte r

pla cing Hall in the spot where Hamilton
fell . He found that he could see the po
lice commissioner s figure as though in
’
silhouette yet clearly enough for him to

,
have shot through the screen with a more

than even chance of hitting his mark .
“ ”
An d he remarked half to hims elf
, , ,
“
as he cam e from behind the screen Doc ,
tor Robinson was convinced that the bullet
which killed Hamilton came from a dis

tan ce of twenty or twenty fiv e feet or
- -
”
m o re .
He con tinued his inspection of the room .

1 08 SIX SECON DS OF DARKNESS
I ts two pedestals with their burden s of

-
h andsome statu ary ; the well fil le d b ook
case s ; the three m assive portraits in oil
which decorated the tinted walls .
Then he crossed the room and ente red

the library Hall followed and snapped
.
on the switch near the door The room .

,
while not as handsomely furnished as th e

livin g room was none the less attractiv e
, ,
mah ogan y and dull green throughou t .
The walls from floor to ceiling were lin e d

, ,
with bookcases It was quite evident tha t

.
the array of books in the living r oom

merel y represented the overflow from th e
library The centre table in the library
.
,
while massive was di fferent from that in

,
the living room While the latter was an

.
ornamental table the former was strictly

,
—
utilitarian a reading table with bo ok
shelves built into the ends and a magazin e
rack for a base The chairs in the room
.
we re deeply upholstered the ornamenta ,
tion sparse b ut e ffective The room as .

,
1 10 SIX SECONDS OF DARKNES S
opened into the dining room a fourth into ,
’
the butler s pantry and a fifth into the
,
kitchen .
The construction of the house on th e

other side of the hall was very S imila r a l ,
though there was no veranda The p a r .
lour was opposite the library at the front o f

the house and behind it the billiard room
,
then the storeroom and behind tha ,

‘
the sum mer kitchen Carroll question e t .
idly
“
Hamilton employed how many serv
”
ants ?
“
—
Three exclusive of Mrs Faber ; .
cook a maid for Miss E unice and a bu 1

, , .
ler .
“
What do you know about them ?
“
N othing much The cook has b eet
.
‘
with Ham ilton for years The maid .
have seen here for two years at least Tb .
butler I believe is a newcomer of the la s

’
few weeks He s a stranger to me at an )
.
,
”
rate .
S I X SECONDS OF DARKNESS 111
“ ”
I d like to speak to the maid the de
’
,
“
te ctiv e announced I m still puzzle d ’
.
over that sudden darkness and the fact

that we know three revolvers were fire d
and yet the people concerned say that there
were only two shots It s pos s ible that .
’
one of the dome s tics can throw a little light

on that phase of the case Call Raff erty .
from the parlour will you ? ,
Hall was back in a minute with a big ,
strapping young policeman in tow He .
was introduced to Carroll as the man in

charge of the case .
“
You ve been here from the first Raf
’
,
”
f e rty ?
“
Yis sor , .
Have you searched the house ?

Yis sor ; with the help av Mrs Faber
, .
,
sor .
“
A thorough search ?
The officer flushed S lightly .
“
N ot pwhat ye might call a thorough
search sor There didn t seem to be
, .
’
1 12 SI X SECONDS OF DARKN ES S
nothin special to l ook for an we just

’
,
’
looked in the rooms k ind of general like

- .
Chief Rollins bein in charge av the case ’
sor it seemed like all he wanted us to do

,
was to watch gine ral ly an leave the clos e ’
—
hunt to him for clues and suchlik e
things That bein the case sor an M rs
.
’
, ,
’
.
Faber bein in a hurr y an all excited u p

’ ’
,
”
we didn t go pokin around too close
’ ’
.
“
Very good And now I want to fin d
.
out something about the servants Where .
”
is the cook ?
“
She s gone for the night sor
’
M rs , . .
”
Faber said it was her night off .
“
—
Call the maid then it isn t her nigh t
,
’
”
OH is it ?
,
“
No sor that s pwh at made Mrs Fab e r
,
’
.
”
so mad sor , .
“
What is
“ ’
The maid isn t here sor , .
What do you mean isn t here ? ,

’
“
Jus t that sor Mrs Fab er said sh e
, . .
must have taken French leave She .

CHAPTE R VII
ARROLL slowly drew from

pocket a pipe and a sack of
bacco He filled the bowl 2
.
tamped it down ; then with a de libe rat

,
which played on Hall s nerves lighte r ’
and puffed a half dozen times .
”
E xplain it Raff erty ! he comman d
,
It s this way sor Whin Chief av

’
, .
te cti v e s Rollins gets out here he tt ,
phones back to headquarters for S erg

O B rie n to send out three men ImS
’ ’
.
out here at wanst with Officers Shorter

Weaver Whin we get here Rollins t ,
’
men is in the paytrol wagon outside ,
he tells us to watch two outside an t

,
’
inside an to allow no wan but the p ol

,
’
d ep artm in t to enter .
“
We ask him who is in the house an ,
’
s ays no wan e xcip t Mrs F aber the h Ol .

,
1 14
SI X S ECONDS OF DARKN ES S 1 15
keeper,an that she will soon be l avin for

’ ’
’
li headquarters him not sayin why ’
p ce , .
He says that it is the cook s night off an ’
,
’
Whin I ask him about the other servants he

sa s he knows nothing about thim ixci t
y p ,
that Mrs Faber has towl d him that they ve

’
.
d isappeared They probably heard the ‘

.
he says to me just like that an , ,

‘ ’
g ot scared an beat it Then he goes ’
a way in the p aytrol with the other fellers

a n I m left here
’ ’
.
“
After a time Mrs Faber comes down .
r eady to leave an I ask her is She sure the

’
,
h ouse is empty S he looks at me kinder .
’
funny an is afther sayin to me just like
,
’
,
’
this I don t know what to make of these
‘
terrible doin s M is the r Hamilton is kilt ’

.
’
dead an the butler an the maid have dis
’
D isappeared ? I questions
’ ’
appeared .
‘
.
Pwhat are ye afther meanin be that

‘ ’
m a am ? An she looks at me like I was

’ ’ ’
g oin to do her
’
hurt an says to m e just ,
’
like this I mane p what I say They ve ‘

.
’
11 16 SIX SECONDS OF DARKN ESS
gone Twas the cook s night out but the

.
’ ’
m aid and the butler should have bee n in

th eir rooms which same they ain t Oh
’
, .
,
dearie me I don t know pwhat to ma ke av

,
’
it ! And thin she went away sor in a

’
, ,
taxicab which She had called .
“
Them may not have been her ixact
worruds sor ; but it was about that way
, .
She looked terribly cut up an flus te re d

’
.
An that s all sor ; ixcip t that I took it to

’ ’
m e s i l f to search the house pretty thorough ,
an I don t be afther findin no wan An

’ ’ ’
.
’
”
that s all there is to it
’
.
Carroll nodded briefly .
“
Thanks Raff erty You ve done very
, .
’
well Just remain on duty with Weaver

.
and Shorter and carry out Chief Rollins ’
instructions You may go . .
He walked back into the living room

with Commi ssioner Hall at his heels .
The commi ssioner sank weakl y in to a

.
This investigation almost terrifies me ,

flatter me by having a pretty good Opin
ion of my ability as a detective Very .
well it follows logically from that prem

,
ise that if I told you what I suspected you

would lose your individuality of thought
-and that is the last thing in the world
I desire It m ight be that I am on the

.
wrong track altogether and that your

,
mind will strike the correct solution .
Talk it over with me as much as you like ,

’
but please don t ask me to tell you what I
think ; it would spoil you as a co worker
- .
“
But you do suspect something ? You
have formulated an idea as to who did the
”
k illing ?
“
To be quite honest I have not I
, .
started OE with an idea which for a long

,
tim e stubbornly refused to be dismissed

, ,
but circumstance has piled on circums tance

so that I am now almost convinced that my
first idea was absurd You see we re ’
.
,
working re v erse E nglish on this case in —

s tead of try ing to fasten the guil t on one of
SI X SECONDS OF DARKNESS 1 19
th r e e suspects we re trying to remove i t

,
’
fr o m two of them ; perhaps from all three

3)
an d
“
Meaning that you think Hartigan
”
m i g ht have done it ?
“
—
M ight hav e certainly He admits .
en o ugh to make that more than a pos sibil

ity and I am inclined to consider Harti
,
g n seriously because he is the one suspect

a ,
Wh o denies his guilt ”

—
And now he rose.
an d stretched himself—
“
it is after two
’
0 c lock Let s run back to headquarters
’
.
an d see if Mr D en s on has materialized

.
,
an d if he has anything to say An d if not .
N
a little sleep will be better for all of us .
Co me p :
AS the y started down the walk Hall ,
S oke
p
“
What do you intend to do next ?
“
That depends absolutely on circum
stances .If nothing changes my mind in
the meanwhile I shall sleep at he adquar
,
ters and tomorrow morning make a trip

1 20 SIX SECONDS OF DARKNESS
—
h ere with Badger alone ecretly I and s .
shall have Badger enact his s tory in tha t:
room Then I shall have him held and

.
bring Miss D uval Mr Harrelson and , .

,
Red Hartigan down and let them tell their

S tories separately I want you here with
.
me An d now
.
”
— he swung open the door
and leaped into the passenger s seat wh ile ’
Hall pressed the starter — “

let s make ’
speed .
The j ourney back to the police station

was made wi thout regard to traffic regu
l ations They shot down one street and
.
up another at more than thirty fiv e mil es

-
an hour and at length pulled up sharply

,
in the glare of the arc light over the portals

of the police building They entered .
headquarters Sergeant O Brien came

.
’
forward and touched his cap .
“
Mr D enson sir is waiting for Mr
.
, , .
”
Hall .
0
“ ”
Where ?
“ ’
In the men s rest room sir , .
1 22 S IX SECONDS OF DARKNES S
he was patently overwrought b y the events
of the night .
“
Mr Hall he said as he extended his
.
, ,
“
hand I can t tell you how glad I am that
,
’
you are here An d Mr Carroll . .
He paused interrogativel y .
“
Is in absolute charge of the case .
“
I m glad of that I k now it is in good
’
.
”
hands .
The two men shook hands and Hall ,
stared at them curiously .
“
I didn t k now that you knew one an
’
”
other D enson
, .
D enson nodded .
“
Carroll has been working for Hamilton
on that civic case Met him at Hamil .
”
ton s office two or three times
’
.
“
—
I see An d now D enson what ?
.
,
D enson looked first at one and then at

the o ther It was plain that he was a bit
.
—
afraid that he was weighing his words
carefully Carroll interpreted his silence
. .
“
I know you re wondering about Miss ’
S IX SECONDS OF DARKN ES S 1 23
D uval Mr D enson , Let me say righ t

. .
here that we k now everything that she has

—
to s ay e xcept the details I will also tell .
you everything else we kno w about the

cas e and he launched into a recital of
the confession of the girl the young artist ,
—Harrelson ; of Badger and of the cap ,
ture of Hartigan by Rollins ; of their visit

to the house and of the mysterious dis ap
,
p e ar an ce of both the maid and the butler .
“ ”
I m telling you all this he finished
’
, ,
“
because we wish to enlist your aid You .
were the lawyer of the dead man and

a re the attorney for Miss D uval his ,
3)
“
And for Vincent Harrelson .
“ '
h
I didn t know that ’
A -a- .
“
Yes the lad has been a sort of pro
,
te ge of mine which was one bone of con

'
tention between Mr Ham ilton and m v .
”
s elf .
“
Mr Ham ilton disliked him keenl y did
.
,
h e not ?
114 SI X SECOND S OF DARKNESS
The gazes of the two men clashed .
“
How far can I trust myself to tel l the
”
truth Carroll ?
,
“
This far : I have made you the third
person to poss e ss the full k nowledge of
the case That I have done it with a rea
.
s on goes without saying and basicall y that

,
reason is that we need your help to get at

the bottom of the matter Being a law yer
.
,
you know two things ; one that it would be

,
hard for an y jury to convict Miss D uval

of the crime if she says anything at all in
—
her own defence no matter how slightly
extenuating the circums tances might have
been Secondly if H arrels on s story is
.
,
’
true it was a clear case of self defence

,
- .
Therefore you see that if ei ther or both is

,
telling the truth all we have to do to clear

them is to fin d out which is which It is .
obvious that only one person k illed Ham

ilton and according to their stories either
, ,
will be cleared M ind you I am sayi ng

.
,
board ; are you going to help Mr Hall at .
myself knowing that we re driving at t!

,
’
strict tru th or are you go ing to trust

,
your single wits to clear your clients wit

out help
Give me a minute Carroll T , .
lawyer rose and stepped to the win d o

For perhaps fiv e minutes he stood moti o
l ess Then he turned on his heel a:
came back to the table His hand we .
“
out and gripped Carroll s If you a! ’
.
Hall are no t on the level Carroll then , ,
one is In some cases a man has to tak e

.
Chance I m taking mine here and m

’
.
wi th you I prom ise to withh old nothi

.
”
-ho wever dam ning it may seem .
“
Good ! I expected as much Mr D e , .
’
s on .An d now let s sit down and talk t!
thing over In the first place you ha
.
,
never answered my question ; d id H am

”
ton dislike Harrelson very keenly ?
“ ”
Y es .
“
D id he hate him ?
S IX SECONDS OF DARKN ESS 1 27
Denso n flushed Slightly .
“
Mr Ham ilton was a man of powerful
.
”
p a ssions I believe
. he did .
“
An d you say that Harrelson was a pro
té é of yours ; what was his attitude to
g
w a rd Hamilton
“
He D enson broke off shortly .
D ammit all sir I m trusting you wi th a

’
, ,
g e at deal o f information ! However

r
W e ll Harrelson is an impulsive head

, ,
st r ong youth and he detes ted Mr Ham

, .
il t on .
“
Have you any theories as to the rea
“
—
Yes but the y are theories .
“
We would like to know them .
“
Vincent Harrelson is secretly engaged
to Miss D uval He had a wild idea that
.
Mr Ham ilton was 111 love wi th 11 6 1 11 1111

.
”
Se l f and wished to marry her
, .
“
I see An d now this : In your opin
.
10 11
, is Vincent Harrelson the type of
Yo ung man to have s houldered the bur
1 28 SIX S ECONDS OF DARKNESS
den of Miss D u v al s guilt provided he is

’
,
convinced that she is guilty of the k i l l

”
ing ?
D ens on pondered .
“
I believe he is but I am not su re The
, .
boy s one weakness is a lack of decision

’
.
I should say too that he has a selfish tra it

, , .
O n the o ther hand I would vo lunteer the

,
opinion that if he had really comm itted the

crime and k new that Miss D uval were s us
”
p e ct e d he would confess his guilt .
“
Good ! That s fine ! You have talk ed
’
”
with Miss D uval haven t you ? ,
’
“ ”
Yes .
D o you believe she shot Hamilton ?

—
I can t answer that really
’ ”
.
Please I assure you we are as anx

.
ious to clear Miss D uval as you can p os

”
s ib l y be .
“
I believe you are Well foolish as it .
,
may be forme to confess it I really be lieve ,
M iss D uval s hot Mr H .
There was a long silence punctu re d ,

1 36 s rx SECONDS OF DARKN ESS
Ask her whe ther she will not in view of ,
these new developments withdraw her ,
confession .
“ ”
Tha t s white ! said D enson simply
’
and left the room For the following ten

.
minutes Carroll smoked in silence And .
then the do or opened and D enson re en-
te re d. He looked harried and worn .
“ ”
Well ?
“
She said replied D enson slowly
, ,
that she doesn t care anything about Red

’
Hartigan or any one else She insists that

.
”
s he killed Mr Hamilton !
.
CHAPTER VIII
AR ROLL
did not rais e his eyes
from the table and Hall follow , ,
ing his lead remained s ilent , .
D enson still a bit shaken seated hims elf

, ,
again and a t length the s il e nce gre w too

‘
,
“ ”
m uch for him W ell what about it ? he
.
,
r as ped .
Hall looked toward Carroll .
“ ”
What about it ? he echoed .
Carroll shoo k his head .
“
I don t know What Mr D enson
’
. .
tells me bears ou t my own theory to a

”
certain extent .
“
Which is
That Miss D uval re all y thinks she
”
k illed Hamilton .
“
But good God burst out D enson
, ,
querulousl y don t you suppose that a

,
’
pe rso n knows when he k ills another ?

13 3
1 31 srx SECONDS OF DARKN ES S
How can there be a doubt about a thing

li k e that ?
“
It was dark in that room expl ain ed ,
“
Carroll quietly for about six secon ds
, .
When we fin d out who turned off th e

lights and why we ll be closer to a so l u
,
’
.
—
tion Until then well there is one thin g ,
”
certain mo re than one person fired
, .
“
Yes ” said Hall three fired We
,
“
, .
—
have the three revolvers Mr Hamilto n s .
’
,
which both Miss D uval and Harrel s on

Claim to have used ; that of this man H ar
tigan and Badger s A ll are police t e

,
’
.
”
v ol v e rs .
“
That s a rather far fetched coin ci
’
-
”
dence isn t it ? questioned D enson
,
’
.
“
Y e e s but so is the triple shooti ng
- - .
I gave Hamilton his weapon some time

ago ; he had a ridiculous rusty old 3 2 , .
which I used to jo k e him about O ne d ay .
he j ocularly remarked that if I didn t like ’
it I could give him another and that s how ,

’
he happe ned to get a regulation rev ol v er .

1 34 s rx SECONDS OF DARKN ES S
That is only an idea probably absurd , .
My first theory may be the correct one .
But we ll take that up later Meanwhile

’
.
,
Mr D enson didn t I understand that you

.
,
’
”
visited Ham ilton tonight ?
“
Yes .
“
Why ?
The call was partly social and part
a business a air The business end of i
ff .
t
had to do with some affidavits I was ge t ?

ting for him in this Civic Leagu e work
And after what I saw there to night I an ?!
trebly unable to believe that Miss D uv al
”
Shot him .
“
There was no trouble b etween Mr .
”
Hamilton an d Mis s D uval tonight ?
“
N othing unusual She has never .
liked him What I m driving at is ’
”
Badger .
“
What about Badger ?
The truth of the story he tells Y ou .
see gentlemen I was there when Badg er

, ,
”
threatened to kill H amilton !
SI X SECO NDS OF DARKN ES S 1 35
“
-
Aah- Carroll leaned forward ea
”
g y
e r l You
. ha d n t menti o ned
’
that .
“
I ve been trying to sift things for m y
’
self ; trying to kn ow what facts to tell and

what to conceal N ow since I m telling
.
,
’
e verything — both helpful and detrimental

t o my clients — I may as well tell what hap
”
p ened when I visited there tonight .
“ ” “ ”
Y e s said Carroll please
- -
, , .
“
I had telephoned Mr Ham ilton that .
I was coming down with those affidavits

to talk things over with him Shortly .
—
after I got there and up to that time our
—
talk had been purely Social Miss D uval
cam e in She was in evening dress just
.
,
as She is now We rose and H am ilton

.
,
as ked her where she was going S he re .
plied that she was going out with Harrel

son Hamilton flushe d and reminded her
.
that he had forbidden Harrelson to the

house She flared up trying not to Show
.
,
it too much before me and said that she ,
was over twenty one years of age and

-
1 36 SIX SECOND S OF DARKN ESS
w ould not be dictated to Ham ilton re .
’
pli ed that he di dn t care to discuss the mat
ter but that he did not intend to have
,
Harrelson vis it the house nor allow her to

go out with him She swept out O f the
.
room furiously angry

, .
“
When S he h ad gone I asked Ham ilton ,
why he was so hard on the boy D enson .

‘
,
’
he said quietly you cannot understan d

,
‘
.
—
You may think it is o h any one of sev ,
eral things ! You look at Harrelson

through rose coloured glasses You like
- . ,
him for the very things I dislike in him .
He is i dealis tic and impractical H e .
m akes a pittance with his daubing and ,
will not work for a living Why should .
I stand by and see such a girl th row herself

away on that sort of man ? I don t like ’
him personally ; but if he was half a man I

wouldn t stand in their way But by
’
.
,
God and he slamm ed his fis t on the table

,
’
,
‘
so long as he remains as worthless as he is
I ll keep him out Of this house no matter
’
,
told D onaldson to let the man in The .
”
man was Badger .
“
You kno w something o f his past deal
—
ings with Badger as his lawyer ques
tion e d Carroll .
“
Yes It dates back fully fifteen years
. .
Badger I take it was one of those failures

, ,
who have squandered a life look ing for

sudden riches It seems that fifteen years
.
or so ago some one took him in with a s ale

of oil lands Badger sunk all his money
.
—
and he had several thousand dollars in
the purchase of these lands He came to .
—
Hamilton you know Ham ilton has al
ways had a weakn ess for listen ing to wild
—
cat schemes an d convinced him that he
—
Badger had sunk every dollar into the
scheme He wan ted money to develop
the land and Hamilton reasoned aga inst
, ,
my advice that if Badger believed in it

,
s ufficiently to put in all of his money ,
H amilton might take a chance .
“
SO Hamilton sent experts down to ih
SI X SECO ND S OF DARKNES S 1 39
v e s tigate They reported as I remember

.
,
it that there was oil in the land but that

, ,
there was small likelihood Of stri k ing suf
fici e n t of it to make drilling operations

worth while Against their advice and
.
against mine he sank about twenty thou

,
sand dollars in it A company was in .
corp orate d with Hamilton holding fif ty
one per cent of the stock and Badger forty

.
nin e per cent After spending all that.
mon ey and gettin g a lmost no oil Hamil ,
ton quit .
“
Badger meanwhile had seen visions
, ,
of millions I believe he was always half

.
cracked He insisted that Hamilton was

.
trying to wrest all the land from him be

fore work ing it ; ridiculous logic as it was ,
H amilton could never convince him that

the proposition was really a failure .
B adger has hounded the man for fifteen

years demanding back his land or his
,
m oney . And Hamilton gentlemen was , ,
scrupulous to a fault in business matters .

1 46 s rx SECON DS OF DARKN ESS
H e refused point blank - That was his .
way and he could not be blamed

, H e had .
invested twenty thousand dollars in the

s cheme A t any rate the idea that H am
.
,
i lton had ro bbed him of a fortune became

a monomania with Badger It has been .
g rowing worse and worse Hamilton has.
tried every method of pacifying him but ,
th e development Of the mania has been

’
s hown by Badger s increasingly ridiculous
—
d emands he recently had been insisting
that Hamilton pay him twenty five thou
-
sand dollars Absurd of course

'
, .
“
Until a couple of months ago H am il
ton has been indulgent has loaned the man
,
money which he knew would never b e ,
r eturned and has always granted him

,
a n audience But the man s wild eyed ’

.
-
vituperation got on h is nerves and for ,
s ome time he has refused to see him I .
—
can produce a dozen witnesses law ye rs ,
—
m ost of them to whom Badger has gon e
1 41 s rx S ECO NDS OF DARKN ESS
k in dly, rather sorry for the crazy old fel

’
low . You ll get yourself in trouble
‘ ’
.
Hamilton swung on me .
This is my aflai r D enson I ve

‘
, .
’
S tood all I m going to stand from th is man

’
.
I m done with him

’
Then he called D on .
’
al d s on and Badger left — meekly enough

and without further threats When h e
had gone Hamilton laughed shortly

, .
He carried it too far tonight h e re

‘
,
’
marked I m through with him An d

‘ ’ ’
. .
then we both put the incident as ide re cl“ ,
oning Badger a crazy man and one not to

be feared And that is all there is to m y
.
story I left a few minutes later before

.
,
Harrelson arrived I went to his b o ard .
ing house thinking to find him there an d

,
ask him not to go to Hamilton s home ’
But when I got there he had gone and I ,
forgot the whole thing until I heard the:

ne ws Of Hamilton s death and the requ es t: ’
that I come to see Miss D uval at the sta

”
tion here .
SIX S ECONDS OF DARKN ESS ~
1 43
was a minute of silence And

T h ere .
th e n Hall broke it :
“
That story tallies perfectly with Badg
“
Yes agreed Carroll
, Almost too.
w e ll The farther we get into the case the

.
m o re convinced we become that th ree of

o u r four possibilities k illed Hamilton — it
i s certain that the story of either Miss D u
v a l or this chap Harrelson is untrue We .
k now that only one of them actually did

”
i t
.
There came a discreet rap at the door ,
a n d in response to Hall s response S e r

’
geant Larry O B rien entered In his

’
.
hands he carried copies of the two morning

newspapers .
“
I was afther thinkin ye d loike to see
’ ’
p w h at the papers have to say about the

”
murder sors He extended the dailies to
, .
Hall .
“
Thanks Larry , .
The men grouped about the table and

1 44 SI X SECONDS OF DAR KN ESS
Hall spread the N ews face upward Se v .
e n column headlines screamed th e news of

-
the sensational murder in forty eight point

- -
type They glanced th rough the article

.
s wiftly and Carroll smiled .
“
Barrett Rollins engineered the report
e rs cleverly he remarked after glancing
, ,
“
at the other paper Not a word about
.
”
e i ther Miss D uval or Mr Harrelson . .
“
He turned to O Brien ’
D id Chief Rol
.
lins leave any instructions regarding the

n e ws to be given to reporters he asked .
“
S ure an he did sor He said that no
’
, .
wan on the force was to say a worru d about

Miss D uval or the young gin tlem an sor , .
T hough tis my Opinion that twill leak o u t

’ ’
”
and be in the avenin papers tom orry
’
.
“
How about your docket ? Aren t th e i r ’
”
nam es entered here ?
“
Only H artigan s sor The others
’
.
,
”
have been kept on private memorandum .
“
Good ! Keep it mum as long as y ou
c an .
1 46 SI X SECOND S OF DARKNES S
“
And I remarked Hall , will remain
with you .
“
I ll go home said D enson with the
’
, ,
express understanding th at I m to be called ’
”
if needed .
“ ”
Good ! They rose and shook hands .
AS they started toward the door it opened

and Larry O B rien poked his head in
’
.
“
Beg pardon sors but Red Hartigan is
, ,
begging hard to see Mr Hall He says he . .
”
has a confession to make .
Hall turned away abruptly D enson .
stared in petri fied amazement O nly Car .
ro ll retained his facial composure and or

dered the man brought in .
“ ”
Good Lord ! gasped Hall Is it pos .
sible that this man too is about to tell us

, ,
”
that he murdered Hamilton ?
“ ”
I hope so said D enson briefly
, .
”
like to believe that he did it .
Hartigan was brought before them and

O B rie n dismissed with orders to wait just
’
outside the door and to allow no one to

,
SIX SECONDS OF DARKNESS 1 47
e
en t r The m an s face was set with the ’
p a i n of his injured wrist and he stared at ,
th e trio de fiantly .
“
I d like to spill this to you two he said
’
si g n i ficantly He was plainly nonplussed

.
at D e n s on s presence Carroll reassured

’
.
“
You wanted to tell us
“
I been think in it over said Hartigan ’
, ,
’
an it struck me that I m in a pretty bad ’
wa y in this mess I didn t kill the 01 duck ’ ’

.
- s o help me ! —
I didn t an I gets to ’ ’
th i n k in to m e s e l f that if you was to fin d

’
o u t I lied about so m e th in you d think I

’ ’
li e d about the whole thing so I ve come to ,

’
”
m ake a clean breast .
“
You mean you killed Ham ilton ?
burst out Hall .
“
N a a ! I don t mean nothin of the
-
’ ’
kind Th e sto ry I told you was true 5

.
’
far s it went But there was on e thing I

’
.
didn t mention
’
He paused
. .
“ ”
Which was ? prompted Carroll .
1 4s SI X SECONDS OF D ARKNES S
You remember continued the big

,
“
man that I told you the lights went off
,
just before I was shot ?

“ ”
Yes .
—
Well what I didn t tell you was this
’
”
I m the man that turned them of !
’
ing his poise and clipping Off his words in
cis i v e l y he swung o n Hartigan
, .
“ ” “
Hartigan he said you are confess
, ,
e d l y a crook and a liar Are you telling .
the truth now or did some one get to you?

,
The big man was plainly puzzled .
“
Get to me ? How could any one do
that ? Ain t I been under guard huh?
’
,
’
What I m tellin you now is the Gawd s
’ ’
tru th ; you can t ake it or leave it but all ,
the clever p ros ecutin attone ys in the world ’
—
can t shake my story now because it s
’ ’
true .
“
Tell us about it .
It s just like I told you afore I was

’
.
making a get away with the boodle an d I

-
,
come into the room from the dinin room ’
where I d copped some silver for good

’
measure The room was all lit up an ,

’
thinki n I heard the sound of a scrap in the

’
next room I hopped behin d the screen

, .
It was pretty dark back there an I k nowed ,

’
’
they d never spot me an I could see s orter
’
,
SI X S ECONDS OF DARKNES S 151
hazy l ik e through— the light bein on that ’
side .
“
Then I was sure there was men quar
rellin an all of a s u dd int a girl comes
’
,
’
f rom behind the p or tié re s over the big win

der on the other side of the doo r leadin to ’
—
the porch the one leadin to the next room
’
— opens an the big guy an the little feller

’ ’
come out fightin , The little man makes ’
a grab for a paper weight or s om e thin an ’
,
’
the big feller gets it away That s where .

’
I begin to think it s a swell chancs t for me ’
to m ake my get away while everything s

- ’
excitement O f course I ve spotted the

.
’
—
switch right near the screen s o I says to
m e s e l f why not switch em all off make a
’
, ,
break through the winder behi nd me which ,
is half open an beat i t ? They don t ,

’ ’
know I m there y s ee an they d never sus

’
,
’
,
’ ’
p e ct nothin A n my pal s’
w ai
. tin in the ’ ’ ’
rden yonder an h o her feller i goin ’ ’ ’
g a t t s,
o u t the front door ; two of us b avin been

’
w orkin inside an one ou tside

’ ’
.
1 51 SI X S ECONDS OF DARKNESS
I keep me eyes Sharp on the scrap an ,
’
,
believe me they re goin to it ! Just as I

,
’ ’
reach out for the switch I see the little fel

ler grab a gun outa th table drawer an th ’
,
’ ’
big man knocks it outa his hand They all .
make a dive for it big feller little feller , , ,

’ ’
—
an th girl I snap off the light flooie !.
just like that .
“
Just then there s two shots ; where ’
from I don t know I feel this pain hot

,
’
.
,
an bu rn in like in my hand an I know a

’ ’
, ,
’
bullet s got me But I know that there

’
.
w asn t no one shootin at me Then I get

’ ’
.
sick all of a sudden an I know I m gonna ,

’ ’
fall Well I thinks if I fall down they ll

.
, ,
’
come over to switch on th lights an they ll ’
,
’ ’
spot me So I reaches over snaps em on

.
,
’
again an lays m e s el f down N ext I

,
’
.
kn ow Rollins has me in the horsp i tal

’
An .
”
that s all
’
.
“
N o that s not all,
’
.
“ ”
S help me it is
’
.
,
Listen to common sense Hartigan , .

That s all ; you can go back to your
’
cell .
Hartigan started forward .
“
I want you to b l ie v e what I tol ye ’ ’
,
boss It s the honest t Gawd truth

.
- -
’ ’
and
“
I ve doubted th e truth from lips of bet
’
a
”
ter men than you Hartigan He opened , . ,
”
the door O B rie n !
’
.
Yis sor The head of the sergeant

, .
appeared as though by magic .
Take this man back to his cell and s ee

—
to it that he talks to no one except of ,
”
course Chief Rollins , .
“
About reporters sor ? ,
“
Not a word is to be said to any one of
them We ll give them the story in time
.
’
.
And when you re relieved in the mo rning ’
—
tell Ryall he s day sergeant isn t he ? ” ’
,
’
”
Yis sor he is , , .
What you know of the cas e ; and give

h im the same orders I ve given you
’
.
”
That s all ’
.
A t the door Hartigan turned , .
“
I ain t used to you fancy bulls he shot
’
,
“
v indictively at Carroll A reg lar one .
’
w ould know when I was tellin the truth

’
.
’
—
I v e said all I got to say an be damned
’
”
t o you !
The door closed behind sergeant and

P risoner It was
. D enson who questioned
C a rroll first .
“
D O you believe his story ?
As much as I believe any story I have
l reard so far But it is a dangerous thing
.
t o believe the word of that type of man .
T hey re uncannily clever at Simulation of

’
i nnocence and he knowing nothing else of

, ,
t he case feels that his neck is in a noose

, .
A n d he s liable to think up a mighty clever

’
”
s tory .
“
And you mustn t forget reminded ’
,
“
H all that a revolver wi th one chamber
, ,
e xploded was found in his coat pocket

, .
Denson shook his head .
“ ’
The whole thing is beyond me I d .
be tter be going home Rem embe r you .

,
g entlemen have both promised to tele

phone m e if there are any new develop
”
ments .
T hey saw him out and then retu rned to

,
the rest room where they had two regula

,
tion iron cots brought do wn and made up .
They left instructions with O B ri e n that

’
they were to be called on the slightest

provocation and gradually they dropped
,
off to sleep .
Hall was the first to wake F o r a min .
ute he stared blinkingly at his unusual sur

roundings and then slowly recollection
, , ,
o f the kaleidoscopic happenings of the
pre vious night returned to his mind In .
the cold sober light of early morning

, ,
the events following Ham ilton s killing ’
seemed like a horrible nightmare from

which one must waken Slowly .
He lay on his cot and stared at the s om

bre ceiling o f the headquarters rest room ’
.
Once he heard some one try the k nob an d

1 58 s rx S ECONDS OF DARKNESS
was incomprehensible that the smoo th ,
S lender boyish face on the cot beside his

,
belonged to one of the best detectives in

the country ; a man gentle of manner and
modest of demeanour ; fair to a fault and ,
with a code Of honour as rigid and un s hak

able as the Rock of Gibraltar ; a man who
faced the worst risks cheerful ly and
quietly ; who in the midst of excitement
, ,
kept his head where Others lost theirs

weighing always w eighing fact and cir
, ,
cum s tan ce pe rson and personality

, .
Carroll smiled gently in his sleep ; hi s

face that of a dreamer rather ascetic in the,
rigidity of some lines and poetic in the

so ftness of o the rs Yet that was the m an
.
who with some the night before had been

, , ,
austere comm anding domineering al

, ,
most ; with others patient to a degree tact ,
ful retiring
, .
O f a sudden Carroll was awake He .
rubbed his knuckles into his eyes sat up in ,
bed and smiled cheerily at Hall F rom

, .
SI X SECOND S OF DARKNES S 1 59
th e instant that his lids popped open there

w as n o hint of bewilderment in his man
ner ; rather there was an almost uncanny
,
ri ghting of himself to surroundings .
“ ”
How do you do it ? asked Hall .
”
What ?
—
Remember it all ou the instant ?
”
It s my profession answered Carroll
’
s imp l y .
He leaped nimbly from the bed slipped ,
t he length O f the rest room where he ,
c racked open a door took a careful survey

, ,
a n d motioned Hall to follow him into the
sho w er room The police commissioner

.
satis fied himself with a warm spray but ,
“ ”
Carroll ignored the handle marked Hot
and stepped under the icy cascade with a
grunt of satisfaction .
His skin glowed pinkly in the morning

light and the easy writhing play of his
,
-
muscles under the s atiny flesh gave an im

.
pression of physical strength which his

cl othes hid completely And finally they .
1 60 SIX SECONDS OF DARKN ES S
were dressed and munching a coarse bre ak
fast served them by the barracks chef ’
.
T hat fin ished they lighted ciga rs and

,
seated themselves in the rest room Car .
roll came straight to the point :

Three of the best detectives I k now
will be here this morning to help me O ne .
of them will be placed in charge of Miss

D uval one of Harrelson and one Of
, ,
Badger Hartigan I will leave to the ten

.
der mercies of the police department .
—
Hello D enson you re early !
,
” ’
D enson Shook hands briefly .
“
D idn t know I had nerves
’
he ,
“
grunted but last night made things seem
,
.
—
creepy Couldn t sleep worse luck ’
.
Took a cold dip and came on down Any .
thing new
“
N othing Have you had breakfas t ?
.
Coffee and rolls ; didn t want anythin g ’
”
else What s first on the program ?
’
“ ”
To the house with Badger Carroll .
1 62
. SIX SECONDS OF DARKNES S
against the back door of headquarters and ,
within fiv e minutes the car containing ,
Carroll Roberts Badger Hall and D en

, , , ,
son was speeding w ith top up and cur

, ,
tains drawn toward Hamilton s home

,
’
.
Immediately on his arrival Carroll sum ,
m on e d the three policemen who had main

tain e d the night vigil at the house In .
response to his query as to their physical

condition they confessed that they had di
,
v i de d the night into three watche s two ,
S leeping at a tim e so that th e y felt fairly

,
fresh Carroll stationed the trio at the

.
two entrances to the ground with strict or

ders that n o one ev e n from the poli ce de
,
p ar tm e n t w as to b
, e admitt e d without first
summoning him Then the car purred .
into the spacious ground s b e au tiful now ,
in the bright sun of a cl e ar summer day , .
It stopped unde r the shadow of a spread

ing elm and the pas s engers alighted
,
.
Badger small insigni ficant looking

, , ,
and a bit frightened at the secrecy which

had ens hrouded their movements glanced ,
about apprehensively Carroll spoke .
with him :
“
You still stick to your story of last
night Mr Badger ?
, .
The little man looked at him out o f his

meek mild inquiring blue eyes
, , .
“
Why yes ; why Shouldn t I ? It s
,
’ ’
”
true .
“
I thought perhaps you d like to retract ’
your confession
“
N o o That wouldn t be an y use
- .
’
,
would it ?
The man was pitiful ; the watchers felt
a profound sympathy for him That such
a meek man Should have been inspired to
—
deliberate murder ir was unbelievable
that he was not mentally deficient .
“
We re going to do what we can for you
’
Mr Badger said Carroll k indly

.
”
,
“
Of .
course I can promise yo u nothing ; if you
are guilty you must su ff er ,But above .

,
al l you must be honest

, What I want .
1 64 SI X SECONDS OF DARKN ESS
you to do now is to enact

scene last
re - the
night from the time you entered the

grounds until you left them Here ”
— he .
thrust into the little wizened hands an

empty revolver the very one Badger had
,
used the previous night — “

o right hea d
g a ,
j ust as you did last night .
Badger gazed appealingly from One to

the other .
“ ”
Wh at s the use of it ? he questioned
’
“
vaguely Haven t I told you I k illed
.
’
”
him ?
“
Yes said Carroll gently but we are
, ,
rather puzzled about the case There are .
three punishm ents for killing a man ; the

crime may be murder it may be man ,
slaughter or it may be plain homicide

,
and the latter may be j usti fiable We .
will watch you Yo u ll do it won t

.
’ ’
”
you ?
“
Y es agreed the little old man tim
,
“
idl y I ll do it but I don t see what it s
,
’
,
’ ’
all about .
“
When I got to here he expla ined I
, ,
got down on my hands an d knees s o — ”

.
Thereafter he acted wi thout speaking .
Slowly and quietly he crawled toward the

rear Of the house pausing every minute or
,
two to glance cautiously about The re .
volver he had thrust into the pocket of his

Shiny old coat The balmy breeze of the
.
early mornin g ruflle d the silky strands of

snowy hair about his temples O nl y the .
now bitter expression Of his face was there

to give plausibility to the fact that he was
re enacting a murder
- .
He approached the southeast corner of

the house flattened him S l against the
,
wall and slipped quietly toward the south

,
ern side where the long veranda spanned

,
the length Of the residence Keeping in .
what must have been a dense shadow at

night he edged around the corner and
, , ,
wi thout relaxing his vigilance made his ,
way past the kitchen and the butler s pan ’
try t oward the flight of steps leading to the

v eran da at the place where the house

j utted in the space between dining room
,
and living room .
A rriving at the steps he dropped to all,
fours and crawled up one by one Car , .
roll noticed that the screen at the corner

of th e veranda would have efl e ctual l y shut
Ofl a view of him from any one who might
have been in the garden Followed by his .
breathless audience the Ol d man crept

,
across the veranda pausing long enough to

,
pull the revolver from his pocket A t the .
b ig F rench window which faced east to —

—
ward th e rear of the house he began talk
in g low and sibilantly :
,
“
—
I came up just like this s o I no .
ticed that the re was a light in the room .
I moved up to the window and looked in .
—
I saw a girl M r Ham ilton s girl I think
.
’
it was I was afraid she would see me SO

.
,
I moved away I waited in the shadow of

.
the screen there ; then I heard the sounds
of a quarrel . I slipped back to the win

dow being careful to stand in the shadow

,
s o that Hamilton would not see me an d
run away I wanted to kill him

. .
E very once in a while I could see the

girl and then I saw him fighting with an
,
other man
“ ”
Him ?
“
Mr Hamilton I couldn t see v ery
. .
’
plainly because that screen you see th e re

cut ofl a part of my view I didn t w ant .
’
to shoot Hamilton while the young m an

was fighting with him because I didn t
,
’
want to kill anybody but H am ilton .
Then all of a sudden he rushed away from

the man he was fighting with and tore o p en
”
the drawer of that table yonder Badg .
er s voice rose shrilly ; he was working him

’
self into a state o f intense excitement

his little figure quivered with emotion .
“
He opened the drawer and pulled ou t a
revolver I thought that he s aw me SO
.
-
I raised the revolver like th is ”

— he lifted
the we apon S till clutching it in bo th
,
1 70 SI X SECONDS OF DARKNESS
”
n ow that I kn ew he was dead ! His eyes
“
were flaming vindictively And I won t .
’
’
say I m sorry because I m not I Was
,
’
.
scared at first awful ; the gun made a big

noise and it frightened me And there
, .
were other people in the room and I ,
thought th ey d catch me and hold me and

’
I wanted to give myself up so that every

o n e would know the truth — would k now
that Hamilton s death had been the hand
’
O f j ustice— that s it the han d of j ustice

’
, .
T his hand here see — He extended a

s kinny paw that trembled as though w ith
p alsy .
“
Think carefully Mr Badger ; did you , .
—
hear another shot just after the lights
”
went on again ?
Badger passed a weak hand across his

f orehead Under Carroll s soothing ex ’
.
amination he was recovering from the

,
frenzy Of passion which had gripped him

a mome nt S ince .
SIX S ECONDS OF DARKNES S 1 71
“
Ano ther hot ? k now
’
s I don t that I
“
Are you sure that you did not?
“
NO I m not sure about anything
,
’
I .
w asn t thinkin g about anything much ex

’
c ept be ing glad that I d killed Hamilton

’
.
I told him I was going to do it and after I ,
s a w him falling I ran away And I ain t .

’
s o rry for it either ; I ain t go ing to say that

,
’
”
if you h ang me I m glad I killed him .
’
.
“
S h s h ! D on t get yourself worked
- ’
-
— — ’
I I can t help it when I thin k of
th at man— and what he did to me You .
s e e I ain t been very well for a long time

’
, .
I have headaches and s uch and I don t ,

’
th ink O f man y things at a time And .

,
“
w ith quaint digni ty I guess that s all ’
, ,
”
a in t it gentlemen ?
’
Carroll nodded .
“
Yes that s all Mr Badger Rob
,
’
, . .
”
e rts !
The young detective s tepped fo rw ard .
“ ”
Yes sir ?
,
Tak e Mr Badger to the automobile;

.
an d be sure that no one s ees him We ll ’

.
”
join you in a minute .
“ ”
Very well s ir , .
He touched Badger gently on the shoul

der and they walked together ; the big ,
broad shouldered young detective in the

-
prime of a perfect life and the wi z ened lit

tle old man long past the heyday of his .
Hall swore sharpl y .
“
If he killed him or not he b rok e out ,
“
v iolently he ought to get Ofl The O ld
,
m an is daffy ; cra zy as a loon ! If I e v er

in my life saw a victim of a homicidal
mania he is it ; don t you thin k so D en
,
’
.
”
son ?
D enson nodded slowly .
“ ”
I believe I do And you Carroll ?
.
,
Instead of answering Carroll stepped ,
through the opened French window into

the room and moved to his right until he
CHAPT ER X
LL tell
’
you why I think Hartigan was
”
shot by Badger continued Carroll ,
“
evenly You yourselves saw the
.
man re enact his part in last night s trag

- ’
edy I for one am anything but gullible

.
, , ,
and I say frankly that I believe the m an

”
was telling the truth .
“
And I said D enson
, .
“ ”
Me too agreed Hall
, , .
SO far so good You also noticed that .
he handled his revolver with two hands .
He is physically weak and puny F rom .
the very way he handled the gun it was

self evident that he is not used to firearms
- .
Why then suppose that his aim was so

, ,
deadly accurate that he hit his target even

i n the dark ? Revolver shooting is a d iffi
cult art at best and it would be stretchi n g
,
1 74
S IX SECONDS OF DARKNESS 1 75
one s credulity to believe that he hit the

m an he was firing at especially as Harti
,
— —
gan so he Says had meanwhile snapped
Ofl the lights .
“
But it is certain that he fired Where .
,
then , did his bullet go ? Here He .
took his stand on the spot where Badger

had stood and clutched the revolver in two
“
hands waving it as Badger had done
, If .
Harrelson and Hamilton had come

through that door yonder they would hav e
been visible beyond the left side of the
screen Badger already had his trigger
.
—
back probably his gun fired and the bul ,
let struck Hartigan You can see the bul

.
let hole beyond in the screen just at the ,
height of H artigan s wrist and I am pretty

’
w ell convinced after examining it again

,
i n the light Of Badger s story that the bul

’
let which went through that screen was

—
h eaded into the room not toward the
”
wall What do you think Mr Hall ?
.
, .
“
—
I think you re dead right and in so
’
far as that little Ol d m an is concerned I m ’
”
glad .
“
And you D enson
,
The lawyer pulled a wry face .
“
Since I have agreed to be honest I m u st ,
—
adm it that I agree with you much as I
hate to .
“
Why ?
“
With Badger eliminated the burden ,
of gu ilt is thrown on one of my two

—
clients Miss D uval or Mr Harrel .
son.
“
You forgot Hartigan suggested Car
,
”
George ! Hall broke out
By I h ad .
forgotten Hartigan ! We ve proved his ’
story true up to the present ; but still h e , ,
might have shot Hamilton and thought

that Hamilton shot him .
“ ” “
He m ight yes agreed Carroll
, , B ut .
one fact stands out with puzzling Sign ifi

—
cance ir is agreed that no Shot was fire d
before the lights wen t out and it is a v ir
,
”
Mean ing ? interj ected D enson e ng
erly .
“
That of our four choices three are mis
, ,
—
taken either deliberately or through cir
cum s tan ce s Remember this case reeks
.
,
with the unusual ; we have one o f the most

prominent men in the city murdered in his
—
own S tudy and immediately following
th e murder the confessions of his ward a ,
society belle ; a young artist and a half ,
crazy Ol d man Then the head of our

.
regular detective force brings in a burglar

so tightly hemmed around with a net of
circumstantial evidence that he wouldn t ’
have a breathing chance before a j ury .
“
A doctor s investigation proves beyond
’
peradventure of a doubt that the man was

Shot only once And while every one
.
present admits that three shots might have

—
been fire d the likelihood is that there
were only two ; one fired in the dark and ,
the other immediately after the lights were

”
snapped on .
You re wrong said D enson earnestly

’
, .
You yourself admitted that what seemed

to be the echo Of the first Shot in the dark
”
m ight have been a second shot .
“
N o I don t forget that I ll even go SO
,
’
.
’
far as to admit that two shots were fired in

th e dark .But this much I will say I have ,
b een trying to fin d out who fired the Sho t:

w hich came after the lights went on again .
I am strongly convinced that that is the

”
s hot which killed Mr Hamilton . .
“ ”
’
I d like to believe you said D enson , ,
“ ”
b ut I can t
’
.
“
Why ?
“
The stories all tally that Hamilton was
S inking to the floor when the lights were
s napped on .
“
True enough ; but isn t it likely that a
’
m an who has always led a sedentary life ,
and then is suddenly gripped in a deadly

fight with another m an should be some ,
what surprised when at the climax the

lights are suddenly extinguished two shots ,
-
o r one — fire d and then the room s ud
,
d en ly bathed in light again ? Imagine

(
yourself in that predicament ; can t you ’
—
visualize the scen e the surcharged tense
ness o f it the fierce emotional strain
, ,
your dazed attitude when the lights went

on And then the shot and you sink to
.
,
the floor O f course it would look as

.
though you had been shot while the lights

”
were out .
“
—
Then why not Hartigan in despera
tion pursued D enson doggedly .
“
You re a good lawyer Mr D en son
’
, . .
But you seem to forget that Hartigan was

shot in the right wrist You see you are .
,
—
givin g yourself away you are try in g to
prove that Hartigan did it when you your
”
self are convinced that he did not .
D enson flushed .
“
Touche ! As a matter of fact I am con ,
v in ce d that either Miss D uval or Mr H ar .
t elson did it But I agree with you that

.
—
Badger did not his bullet went so m e
I am not that sort of a character My .
method is simple ; I am merely marshal l ing

before me all the facts of the case down to ,
the minutest detail I am trying to weigh

.
each in the balance and give each the atten

tion that it appears to deserve When I .
feel confident that I have all the facts be

fore m e I will then try to decide who
,
really did the killing and how But , .
please please do me the favour of ridding

,
yourselves of the idea that I am a fiction

detective holding back in my mind the
nam e o f the person who really did it I .
as sure you that I am as much up in the air
as you are .
“
That all sounds good Carroll said, ,
“
Hal l but you admitted not so long ago
,
that you had started out with pretty well

”
f ormed s uspicions .
“ ”
I did said Carroll quietly and they
, ,
were all knocked into a cocked hat by later

developments An d I prefer not to tell
.
SI X SECO NDS OF DARKNESS 1 83
my suspicions to you There are a good

.
many things in thi s case I cannot make

—
head or tail of which is the reason I do
not want to tell you what I originally
thought . I want you to review the case
—
for yourselves open mindedly and then
-
,
let me kn ow honestly what your conclu

s ions are You stand as much chance if
.
,
n o t more of hitting the correct solution

, .
—
I can promise you this we shall know
s omething before very long and in the
,
m eanwhile I want to get Mr D en s on s con

’
.
s ent to a little plan of mine .
“ ”
Which is ? asked the lawyer .
“
To return to headquarters confront
,
Vincent Harrelson with Miss D uval

w ithout telling either anything about the
O ther — and then deliberately listen .
”
H ow about it ?
D enson Shook his head slowly .
“ ’
’
I m afraid that s not playing the game
”
s quarely .
Do you want the truth of the m atter ,
D enson That is a quick way of learning

”
where they stand .
D enson paced slowly up and down the

veranda What Carroll said was true ;
.
neither E unice nor Vincent Harrelson

k new that the other had confessed Sud .
d e nl y confronted with one another they ,
might be startled 1 nto speaking the truth .
D enson whirled and nodded .
“
Ano ther damn fool proceedin g on my
-
”
part Carroll but you can have your w ay
, , .
“
Great ! I assure you Mr D enson , .
,
you are doing a sensible thing N ow .
”
back to headquarters .
In a short time they were back at the

police station and Badger was left in his
private cell in the company of Roberts ,
Carroll s man
’
.
Carroll arranged things with expedition .
Johnson and Smith two of C arroll s men

,
’
were instructed about bringing E unice and

1 86 SIX SECON DS OF DARKNESS
at first that Carroll had not entirely

dropped the case but the outside detective
,
placated him .
“
You see Rollins I don t like to drop
, ,
’
the case until it is absolutely cleared up

and while circumstantial evidence does
,
undoubtedly po int to Red Hartigan we ,
have two other self confessed suspects who

-
must be cleared be fore we can clos e up the

record Isn t that so
.
’
“
Y e e s ; but as soon as they kn o w
- -
about Hartigan
“
E xactly beamed Carroll na 1 vely and
, ,
then nodded to his two men Rollins .
scowled momentarily .
“
That s another thing I don t like he
’ ’
asserted none too pleasantly “

Wh y v e .
’
you got your men on the job here ins tead of

”
the reg l ars ?
’
“
A little idiosyncrasy of mine Rollins , .
However I ll trot em away soon enough

,
’ ’
.
Now let s keep silent all of us From

’
, .
this room here we can see something and

SIX SECONDS OF DARKNES S 1 87
h ea r everythi ng . N ot a soul is to say a

”
w ord .
A silence fell on them as they stood ,
g r ouped in the dressing room between the

,
r e st room and the showers Their expres .
s ions a fforded a study for a facial artist .
D enson plainly betrayed his keen personal

i n terest and his fear that he had done the
w rong thing in consenting to the forthcom
i n g meeting ; Hall was figuratively on his
t o es wi th interest part personal and part
,
i m personal ; Rollins was sullen and rather

i l l at ease ; Carroll placid and smiling be
n ign l y .
The door opened and Vincent Harrel

s on entered the rest room Smith left him.
w ith a word and Harrelson stared curi

,
o us ly about plainly at a loss for an ex

,
p lanation A n d then
. a f e w seconds later
, ,
i n came E unice D uval The officer in .
Charge of her left the pair alone ; the door
c losed and they faced each other

, .
The surpris e visible on the face of each

c ould not have been simulated ; even the

chronically doubting Rollins knew that it
was real For perhaps fiv e seconds the
.
young couple stared at one another and ,
then they did the perfectly natural and

normal thing for two young people who are
very much in love They swept together ,
and Vincent took the girl in his arms and

k issed hungrily Then he let her lean
.
back in his arms and stared into her eyes .
“ ”
It s good to see you sweetheart he
’
, ,
“
said softly But how in the world did
.
you know I was here ? The papers

’
—
haven t a word about me at least that s ,
’
”
what Smith said .
A puzzled look flashed into her eyes .
“
They didn t tell me you were here
’
,
Vincent They simply said that there was

s ome one to see me and then brought m e
,
3,
ln .
“
Brought you
in ?
“
—
Why yes certainl y
, .
H e shook his head .

“ ”
What has that to do with it ? she said
“
doggedly I ve told them I did it
.
’
“ ” “
And so have I he flashed ,D O you .
suppose for one minute that I would have

”
allowed that sacri fice on your part ?
The words were pouring torrentially from
“
his lips D o you suppose that I will al
.
low your name to be dragged through the

mire because bless you you think that you
, ,
will be absolved by a jury while I would be

convicted ? GO tell them dear that you , ,
didn t I ll get off never fear I shot

’
.
’
, .
”
him in self defence
- .
“ ”
Vincent ! Her arms went up about
his neck and her eyes bored straight into
“
h is
. You mustn t do this thing ; it is’
wonderful of you just what I would have,

”
expected but you cannot ; you must not
,
.
He laughed shortly .
“
My dear little girl it wouldn t take ,
’
them very long to find out that you did not

shoot Mr Hamilton And then they d
. .
’
fin d out about my quarrel with him and

SI X SECO NDS OF DARKN ESS 1 91
get me My self defence plea would

.
-
amount to nothing then wo uld it ? I , ,

’
thought I d better face the music ; had bet
ter take my medicine right He did at .
tack me and it was he who pulled the re

,
volver from the drawer If there is such .
—
a thing as justice in the courts and I be
—
lieve that there is I will be let Off ”
.
Very suddenly th e girl seated herself .
Her eyes were misty .
“
Kiss me Vincent , .
He did as bidden and then she con ,
tin u e d
“
N ow sit down please ; I want to argue
,
”
with you .
“
There s no room for argument dear
’
, .
”
Please Vincent , .
He drew a chair close to hers possessed ,
himself of her hand and as She talked he ,
stroked it gently Her eyes flamed with

.
a wonderful light a light which brought

,
lumps to the throat of the eavesdropping

quartet in the next room .
1 91 s rx SECONDS OF DARKNESS
“
Listen,
dear she s aid softly you , ,
m ust listen to sens e I came down and .
confessed because I was afraid they would

fin d out about your quarrel and fight with
Mr Ham ilton and would arrest you I
. .
shot him as you well know just as the

, ,
lights went out They won t do any thing.

’
—
to me it was done in the heat of passion
and when it seemed that he would kill
”
you .
“
Let me interrupt he said firmly , .
That defence would never go In the .
”
first place you had no revolver
, .
“
I picked it up off the floor when you
tore it from his hand .
“
D on t talk nonsense Eunice You re
’
, .
’
saying all that because you too think that , ,
we are being listened to Imagine that .
little runt of a man tearing a revolver from

”
my hands .
“
He didn t she persisted ’
,You tore .
it from his hands I picked it up and fired .
just after the lights went out When they .

1 94 SI X SECON DS OF DAR KNES S ,
“
You put me in the light of a man con
fessing to save his sweetheart I wouldn t .
’
do it if you had really shot him ; they d let ’
you Off all right enough But I picked up

, .
—
that revolver and fired in the dark I had
taken aim first I m a good shot ; you are
.
’
”
not .
I was s tanding very close to him .
And I was closer Can t you see that .

’
they ll never hang me for what I did ?

’
“ ”
I ll not allow you to take chances
’
.
“ ’
An d you won t retract your ridic ulous
confession
“
I have told the truth .
You will stick to that story ?

”
Positively .
”
Then he said hopelessly God help
, ,
”
us both !
“ “
Why ? she cried anxiously You .
don t mean to say that you will refuse

’
to retract in the face of what I have inst

”
said ?
“
I mean just that dear I Shot him , . ,
srx SECONDS OF DARKNESS 1 95
dI
1 was willing to take the consequences .
1 view Of your implication I am afraid I ,
all have to amend my story so that it
ill not look SO much life self defence

-
'
that I will lose the j ury s sympathy and
’
”
ey ll be more liable to convict me
’
a .
“
They ll never convict you They will
’
.
”
alize that I am telling the truth .
“ ” “
Then he said simply I shall never
, ,
11d my head up again You mean well

.
,
unice ; but you are doing a headstrong ,
clish thing I am sorry dear ; although

,
”
makes me love you the more .
A sudden crafty light crept into her

,
—
D id you hear a second shot it
un d e djust as though it were fired when
t:lights went on again .
He frowned .
“
You will claim that you fired that ?
”
D id you hear it ?
Yes O f course I did
- .
“
Where did it come from ?
I don t know dear I probabl y imag
’
, .
”
in e d it
.
“
If it had been real and not a figment
—
of the imagination where would you
”
guess it came from ?
“
O uts ide I Should say
, .
Good ! And did you know that they

foun d a burglar l ying unconscious and
”
wounded behind that screen ?
,
“
What ? You mean
That we ll both probably get ofl if we
’
wan t to I mean that they are sure that

.
”
his bullet killed Mr Hamilton . .
The young artist Shook his head slowly .
“
N O dear ; I certainly did not hit the
,
screen when I fired and the burglar was

wounded The chances are his revolver
.
w ent OE and he hit himself It was my .
shot
“
—
D on t lie ! It was I who fire d you
’
”
know it !
In the adjoining room Carroll nodded ,
to the others and beckoned them to follow .

CHAPT ER XI
minutes later Vincent Har

IVE ,
re l s on answered a rap on the door
an d D avid Carroll came in fol ,
lowed by the lawyer th e police commis ,
s ion e r , and Barrett Rollins E unice .
stepped forward and spoke with a dm irable

self possession
- .
”
D id you enjoy our conversation ? she
questioned brightly .
Carro ll smiled .
“
I can t say that I did he answered
’
, .
You only succee d ed in puzzling me more

”
than ever .
“
It s what they tried to do growled
’
Rollins .
“
! uite evidently returned Carroll
, .
And now Miss D uval may I ask you one

, ,
”
q uestion ?
s rx S ECONDS OF DARKNESS 1 99
“
A thousan d if you like . But I tell you
r ight now
“ ”
There s no use quibbling ! snapped
’
“
Harrelson aggressively I killed Ham
.
ilton and Miss D uval thinking that She

, ,
will be let Off because she is a woman has ,
c onfessed to save me You tell her this

.
,
C arroll honestly : D O you or do you not

,
think that I would be acquitted on the

”
f a cts as you know them ?
Carroll eyed him keenly .
“
According to the facts as you have pre
s e n ted them Mr Harrelson I should say
, .
,
that you would be acquitted without any

great trouble What do you think Mr
.
, .
D enson
The lawyer nodded gravely .
“
I think they d let you Off son pro
’
, ,
v i de d your story stood the test Of cross

”
e x amination .
Harrelson turned triumphantly to the

g irl .
“
You see dear ; e ven Mr D enson ad
, .
200 S I X S ECONDS OF DARKNES S
m its that I d be let off Now wil l you

’
.
retract your silly soft hearted con fes

-
,
sion
The girl looked up an d then away again .
“ ”
You re a dear boy she s aid in a
’
,
“
choked little voice But you see gen .
, ,
tlem e n I cannot retract the tru th

, I shot .
Mr Hamilton You wanted to ask m e a

. . .
”
question Mr Carroll ? , .
“
—
Yes it is a question directed at bo th
of you D uring your little talk j ust now
.
you seemed to agree that there was one

revol ver and one only among the three of
, ,
”
you Is that correct ?
.
They were silent for a minute suspect ,
ing a trap D enson spoke : .
“
I d advise that you tell the truth
’
.
“ “
Yes said Harrelson there was j ust
, ,
—
one revolver Mr Hamilton s I picke d .
’
.
it up ofl the floor and fired at him .
E unice shook her head .
“
It is just a question of which one is
The little old lady shook her head .
“
N o sir I don t understand any of it
, .
’
—
either unless they got scared when the
shooting started and ran aw ay I might .
unde rstand the maid doing that Si r ; but ,
not the butler He was a big strapping

.
,
”
man sir
, .
“
He was that indorsed D enson , I .
saw him last night and he didn t impress

,
’
me as being the type of man to be fright

”
ened by a little shooting .
“
Wh at s all this talky talk about the
’
-
butler broke in Rollins roughly .
“
Whada we care where he s gone ? We ’
g o t the guy that done the work an w e ,

’
should worry if the butler never comes

back .
“
N0 0 on the face Of it we shouldn t
-
, ,
’
said Carroll slowly But in a case as.
complex as this one I prefer to talk to

every one who was near the scene at the
”
time .
“ ” “
Piffie ! snapped Rollins S more o
’ ’
.
your dam ur pardon ladies

’
- e b
gg n i
’
yo ,
highfalutin s tufl Got to go ahead j us t

’
.
so like it s wrote down in the book Hon

’
, .
e s t you private S leuths gimme a pain ;

,
if you was to see a guy shoot another one

y ou d go
’
up an e xamine th footprints an
’ ’ ’
th e calibre Of the revolver instead of

”
c hasin the feller that you seen do it
’
.
Instead of growing angry Carroll thre w ,
b ack his head and laughed ringingly .
“
Pretty good Rollins Maybe you re , .
’
r ight after all I m somewhat of an Ol d ’
, .
f ogy in thos e things ; like the farmer with

th e join ted fishing rod and gold mounted
-
—
h andle he whips the stream all day and
c atches a trout two inches long while the
ki d on the bank with a switch from a tree ,
f our yards Of string and a bent pin catches ,
a dozen .
Rollins grinned .
That s about the size of it Mr Ca rroll

“ ’
.
, .
’
I wasn t s lappin at you personal y under
’
,
’
s tan d ; it s just that you fellers ain t used

’ ’
1 64 SI X SECOND S OF DARKN ES S
to the game an y travel all around th

,
’ ’ ’
”
block to git next door .
“
Well as Rollin s has said went on
, ,
Carroll gravely albeit he was not uncon

,
s cious and not unamused at the gla n ces o f
wonder on the faces of Hall and D enson at

“ ’
his reception of Rollins brusqueness that ,
eliminates a need to interview the butle r .
”
N ow for the living room .
They entered the room in which th e

shooting had occurred and as they did s o ,
the weird associations of the place affected

the nerves of all They became quiet
.
all Of them save Rollins As for the head .
of the regular Office he strutted up an d ,
down the room with his chest out like a

pouter pigeon proclaiming his theories to
,
all who would listen .
They were theories which absol v ed

E unice and Harrelson from all blame and
loomed ominous for a certain Mr R ed .
Hartigan who scowled silently at the big

,
206 SIX SECONDS OF DARKN ES S
a fternoon so that the breeze could com e

”
through .
“
And the screen over the corner of th e
”
veranda ?
“
Was down on the southern side be ,
c ause the exposure is S lightly westerl y too , ,
a nd we did that to keep the afternoon s u n
away The screen on the eastern exp o

.
s ure had been rolled up .
“ ” “
Good ! said Carroll N ow begin at .
the beginning You Hartigan y ou h a d

.
— ,
”
y our gun out .
Hartigan frowned deeply .
“
Say listen here cull ! If you ve
’
, ,
brung me up here to catch me in a trap ,
gonna get fooled see ! I didn t have

’ ’
y r ,
—
no gat never carried one I had a b u n .
d le of swag an I was standin back here

’ ’
s lipped in thro ugh th back stairs hall ’
, ,
dinin room an was waitin to vamo s e

’
,
’ ’
through this here winder when I seen this

girl S tep out from behind them curtains
y onder .
s rx SECONDS OF DARKNESS 1 67
“
N o one was in the room when you c am e
”
in from the di ning room ?
“
D idn t see no one Guess she was
’
.
”
th ere all th time ’
.
“
Why didn t you make your get away
-
’
right Off
“
Because explained the burglar it
, ,
w as th other half of th winder that was

’ ’
o pen an that was beyond th screen SO

’ ’
, .
th ere wasn t nothin to do but for me to

’ ’
w ait until th coast was clear I lay low

’
.
”
u ntil th fight started
’
.
“
Hmm ! D id you see this man Miss ,
D uval
She shook her head .
“
NO NO one came in the room righ t
.
”
th en but D onaldson .
A battery Of eyes flashed to hers Car .
r oll was patently surprised .
D onaldson
The butler she explained , .
You didn t mention him Why ? ’

.
I forgot him He came in the room .

,
2 08 SIX SECON DS OF DAR KN ESS
l ooked out toward the garden and walked ,

”
into the dining room again .
“
D id you see him Hartigan ?
Yeh I seen him
, .
“
Why didn t you mention it ?
’
“
I got my own good reasons for that .
Rollins burst in violently .
“
It s probable that the butler was in on
’
” “
the robbery !
’
he rasped That s why .
this here guy won t say nothin — ’

low as ’
they get they don t get so low as to squeal

,
’
on a pal But that d explain your butler

.
’
”
beatin it when the fireworks started
’
.
“
SO O !
- Was Donaldson in with you ? ”
That s f r me to know an you to find

’ ’ ’
“
o ut
, sa id Hartigan belligerently I ve ’
s aid all I m gonna say about him

’
.
“
Which is tantamount to an admission
th at the butler was concerned in the bur
”
glary , interjected D enson Hartigan .
looked at him sharply .
“ ’
It ain t tantym oun t to no thin you
’
wise guy p r
.
I duck ed and managed to grapple with
”
him .
“
Just one minute Mr Harrel son , . .
How did you happen to be in here with

him ?
“
Mr Hamilton did not like me and we
.
,
started quarrelling about my attentions to

his ward to whom I have the honour to be
,
engaged We met in the living room and

.
,
he asked her to leave us alone She re

fused and he suggested that we come in
,
here where we could be alone I of .

,
”
course agreed , .
“
And why did you go behind th e por
t1 eres Miss D uval
,
“
I thought they might come back in the
room and think I had gone I came back .
when I heard the violent quarrel and the

noise evidently caused b y the throwing of
”
the paper weight .
“
I see And just about then is when
.
you came in from the dining room wasn t ,

’
it Hartigan
,
Guess so Th room looked empty an

.
’
,
’
this here lady come out from behind them

”
there curtains right afterward .
“ ”
Go ahead Harrelson, .
“
As I say I grappled with him All I
, .
van te d to do was to hold him quiet but ,
re was stronger than I thought and slip
)ery as an eel We banged against the

.
loor and it flew open We staggered into .
”
b e room .
“
Where was Miss Eunice at that time
The girl took her place halfway be
ween the door and the table .
“
I was standing right here frightened ,
”
0 death .
“
Is that the way you saw them Harti ,
a
g n
“
That s th way it looked to me
’ ’
.
Course I couldn t see awful plain from

’
”
! chind that there screen .
“ ”
An d then ? prompted Carroll .
“
Mr Hamilton tore loose from me
.
,
“
vent on the young artist Be fore I kne w .
what he was doing he had the drawer of
that table open and a revolver in his hand .
Eunice screamed and I j umped for him

,
an d grabbed his arm Then .
”
I turned out the lights said Harti ,
”
You ! It was a chorus from E unice ,
Harrelson and Rollins .
“ ”
Yes I kn ew that said Carroll quietly
, , .
”
Go ahead Mr Harrelson , . .
“
As the lights went out the revolver
dropped to the floor I reached down .
,
grabbed it and shot him, .
Eunice s face flamed

’
.
“
That is not the truth Mr Carroll , . .
You can look at him and see that it is not

.
the truth The revolver spun against my

.
feet Before I realized what I was doi ng

.
I picked it up and fired at Mr Hamilton . .
An d he did not tell the truth about one

other feature in his eagerness to shield m e .
I had the revolver in my hands before the

lights went out ; isn t that so Hartigan
’
,
Certainly She placed herself im me
.
diately between the table and the door on ,
a line with the corner of the room Car .
roll walked back across the room and ex

—
tended both hands one to Eunice and one
to Harrelson .
“
I think that about absolves the pair of
”
you two foolish children he said heart
,
ily.
A gasp of surprise went up and a chorus

“
of What do you mean
”
I mean said Carroll slowl y that the
, ,
bullet that was fired from that spot never

hit Mr Hamilton at all It struck in the
. .
very corner of the walls and ceiling yon

der You can see the hole for your
'
p )
sel ves
CHAPTER XII
T was D enson his mind trained to

,
cope with sudden twists to whom the ,
legal aspect made an immediate ap

p eal
. He leaned forward and made a f u
tile attempt to conceal the excitement in
his voice :
“
D o you mean Carroll that they are
, ,
”
free ?
Carroll shrugged .
“
Practically Can t let them OE e n
.
’
tire l y yet but I think I can promise them

,
a release on their own recognizance And .
now
”
—he turned to them — “
I would like
to k now just to satisfy myself who reall y
, ,
”
did fire that shot ?
N o trap Carroll warned D enson
, , .
“ ”
Answer or not retorted the detective
, .
“
As for me I play my cards face up
, Two .
mt of three were agreed that the shot was

21 5
fired in the dark It has been the consen

.
s u s of Opinion and my personal belie f that
the shot which killed Mr Ham ilton was .
n ot fired from close quarters— the appear

ance of the wound the lack of burning
, ,
an d the absence of powder stains attest
that But it is certain that Mr Hamil

. .
ton s revolver was fired Where then did

’
.
, ,
the bullet go ? It doesn t take any trans ’
cend en t investigator to find the hole

m ade by a bullet fired from that spot at
M r Hamilton And there it is
. .
”
He .
pointed to a small round hole plugged in

,
the j uncture point of the two walls and

the ceiling in the corner near the hall .
“
SO there D enson is my case again st
, ,
these two young people They can an .
’
swer or not as they wish I ve played fair
, .
and aboveboard all the way through and ,
was merely trying to satisfy my very hu

man curiosity as to which one did it .
The eyes of the men met and h eld .
D enson threw up his hands .

”
I congratulate you sir he said qui , ,
“
e tl y . I had thought that chivalry was
d ead .
“
Not that sir returned the young man
, ,
“
somewhat bas hfully You see I took
.
,
pains to concoct a story which pretty well

”
protected me .
“
Poppycock and balderdash ! Your
story was true and you were willing to
,
shoulder the blame ! D am me sir I m , ,

’
glad to shake your han d if it has t aken the ,
death of my be s t friend to prove to me

that there are a few men alive in whom the
”
b e s t of the medi aeval s till exi s ts .
Carroll re s um ed his s l ow paci n g of the

room As he p as s ed each of his three m en
. ,
he whispered a few w ords to the m s ignifi

can tl y then w alked on n onchalantly as
, ,
though taking a constituti onal H is kee n .
eyes lighted with the joy of the chas e

, ,
missed no detail of the sparsely if han d ,
s om e l y furnished room Finally he

, .
”
faced the Others .
SI X SECONDS OF DARKN ESS 1 19
“ ”
And now he said we have p rove d
, ,
the innocence of our two chief actors I .
don t k now whether you gentlemen re

’
ali z e in your personal relief over the

,
lib e rati on of these young folks that we are ,
as far from the capture of the murderer as
we were thirty seconds aft r the fatal sho t e
”
was fired .
They stared at him in dazed silence .
What he said was true ; that phase of the

case had not appealed to them Hal l .
opened his mouth to mention Badger then ,
closed it abruptly — like a fis h gasping in

the fre s h air He remembered two things
.
regarding Badger — firs t of all that they ,
had pretty well proven his innocence an d ,
secondly that Rollins knew no thing of

,
Badger or his connection with the c as e

, .
He remembered also the fact that there

, ,
was a third shot ; two had already been

accounted fo r — E unice s which had for
’
tun ate ly gone wild and dug itself a bur
row ln the cei l ing ; an d Badger s which

’
,
2 20 SIX SECONDS OF DARK NES S
had inflicted the painful wound in Harti

gan s right wrist
’
.
But H artigan s revolver had also been

’
fired According to the burglar s story he

.
’
had not fired Furthermore it had been

.
,
pretty well agreed that the fatal shot had

been fired i m mediately after the lights
were turned on Badger stubbornl y
.
m aintained that he h ad fired in the dark .
If that were true and it was a fact that his

bullet was the one which had wounded
Hartigan then it followed that Hartigan
,
cou l d no t well have fired wi th his right

w rist ma ngled .
It seemed that Carroll had been work

ing in a circle eliminating one b arrier
,
after another only to find each n e w one

harder to surmount But if Carroll and .
his friends were bewildered Barrett Rol ,
lins head of the regular detective force

, ,
was not at all at a loss as to who was the

culprit .
“
There was three of them in the room ,
I kn ow that s all There a in t no one

,
’
.
’
e lse could O f done it .
“
NO that s true ; that s true And yet
,
’ ’
.
,
he continued in a placidly argumentative

tone as though discussing a purely the
,
“
o re tical case you forget that some one
,
s hot Hartigan .
“
Poof ! Maybe he wasn t shot just ’
”
then .
“
But he was you see , .
I don t see any such of a dam thing !

’ ’
—scusing th French You fly cops think

’ ’
.
you ve got it all down pat when y don t

’ ’ ’
k now a thing T tell me that Red Harti ’

.
g a n couldn t of been S hot

’
when
He was shot behind that screen .
Carroll bit his words OE sharply A hint .
o f antagonism the first he had Shown to,
ward Rollins had crept into his tones

, .
“ ”
You re crazy !
’
Carroll turned away sm iling again , .
“
Well there s no use arguing wi th
,
’
y ou .
s1x SECOND S OF DARKN ESS 1 13
Of course there ain t An d then as

’
.
,
Carroll fell into a low voiced conversation

-
with E unice and Harrelson Rollins strod e ,
across the room after him One big hand .
shot out and Carroll was whirled around .
T he face of the young detective went

w hite and he shook himself loose
, .
“
Rollins he said acidly you will keep
, ,
”
y our hands to yourself .
“’
I ll do what I please started the
m an from headquarters and then calmed ,
d own suddenly with the remembrance that

h e was in the presence of the police com
“
m issioner S pose you tell me why you
’
.
k n ow that this here yegg was potted while

”
h e was there an not before
’
.
“
I don t believe you are interested in my
’
”
theories ,returned Carroll quietly .
Rollins voice took on a pleading nu

’
”
a n ce
.
Now Mr Carroll I was n t meanin

“ ’ ’
, ,
an y thing
“’
I m nothing but a fly cop flung out ,
“
Carroll clipping his words
, But I have .
sense enough to know that his wound was

bleeding pro fusely an d that there were ,
no blood traces anywhere e xce pt be hind

”
that s cree n !
”
An involuntary Oh ! was ripped from
Rollins lips O f a sudden his temper
’
.
grew sullen again .
“
Well whadaya d riv in at ? D yuh
,
’ ’
have to have everybody mixed up in the

case come out an paraded before y ? ’ ’
Then take y r pick ? ’
This tim e real anger flamed into Car

roll s eyes His face grew livid and his
’
.
fists clenched He came very close to Rol

.
lins and his eyes burned into the little

, ,
close set orbs Of the chie f of the regular

-
force .
“
Let s have this out right now Rollins
’
, ,
once and for all From the very begin .
’
ning of this case I haven t liked your m an
ner So long as it was part1al ly imper
.
sonal and dealt in generali ties I thought ,

226 SI X S ECONDS OF DARKNESS
“
Very well sir he said with s im u , ,
“
lated respect Until this case is fin
.
is he d I ll remember that you re over my

’ ’
head .
“
That s all I ask ’
Carroll turned to .
ward the oth ers in a second ridding him ,
self Of the anger he had just exhibited .
“
We are still far from a solution of this
” “
case he said
, Instead of having two
.
people who claim to have committed the

crime we have one suspe ct against w hom
,
the evidence is wholly circumstantial and ,
not at all strong You Hartigan said .

, ,
something about pals ; do you mean that

”
you were not alone in this robbery ?
Hartigan thought for a moment and
then nodded .
“
Yes sir just that Me and my pals
, , .
’
we never work alone y s ee ; an they was ,
’
”
with me .
“
And of course you won t tell who they ’
”
were ?
“
O f course not sir , .
s rx S ECON DS OF DARKN ES S 11 7
H mm ! Will you tell me this ? D id

”
o n e Of the m shoot you ?
The burglar was a bit dazed by the ques

t ion .
“
Why cert n y not sir Ain t I told
,
’ ’
, .
’
right from h first that I was S hot

’
y ou t
w hile I was standin behind th screen

’ ’
“
D O you realize Hartigan the positio n
, ,
th is puts you in So long as we suspected

e ither Miss D uval or Mr Harrelson here .
, ,
t here was a chance that we might believe
y our story But now

. even you will a d
m i t that neither of them did it and you ,
w ere the only other person in the room and ,
y our gun had been fired

“ ”
No burst out the big man that s not
, ,
’
t rue sir and ye know it !

, , That gun was
p lanted on me ! How I dunno A ll I, .
k now is I ain t never toted a gat Rol

’
.
lins th ere could tell y that if he would

, ,
’
.
” “
Y s ee
’
, he explained painstakingly us ,
crooks has got habits j ust like reg lar guys ’

.
Some of us is gunm en an some ain t

’ ’
.
228 SIX SECOND S OF DARKNESS
An Rollins knows all of
’
that s his us — ’
business An he knows that when a m an

.
’
has a rep for not p ackin a rod he don t do ’ ’
”
it th at s all A in t that so Rollins ?
,
’
.
’
,
“ ”
Not in your case answered Rollins ,
“
fiercely You ve been caught with a gun ’
.
”
before .
H artigan s face flamed

’
.
“ ” “
Cop or no cop he raved I m here , ,
’
tellin ye that y r a dirty rotten liar ! An

’ ’
,
’
”
that goes as she lays if I swing for it !
—
Rollins leaped forward but Hal l
stopped him with a whispered word of
warning He turned to Carroll
. .
“
What that yegg says is part true he ,
“
explained I know em all I got their
.
’
,
records at my finger tips ; some of em do ’
’
carry guns an some don t But take it ’
.
— —
from me an I know there never was a ’
bunch of second story men th at set out to

-
crack a crib like this here one without heel
in themselves
’
My Gawd Mr Carrol l .
, .
,
”
don t that sound reasonable ?
’
1 3 6 s rx SECONDS OF DARKN ESS
ton himself an d plan ted the gun on yo u ?
Hartigan Shook his head wi th dogged
loyalty .
“
I ll take my chan ces Mr Carroll If
’
, . .
they j ack me up for murder I ll tell But ,

’
.
until they do an I m on trial I ll stand my ’ ’ ’
chances of the real murderer bein caught ’

.
An as for one of my pals plantin th rod

’ ’ ’
—
on me ain t I told you they was my pals ?
’
They wouldn t do nothin like that

’ ’
.
“
There s something about you H arti
’
gan declared C arroll spontaneous ly

, ,
“ ”
that I like .
“
An there s some di fference betwee n
’ ’
you an a tec who makes up his mind tha t

’ ’ ’
a certain chap is guilty cause he s got hi m

’ ’
’
with the goods an after that doesn t look ,
’
no farther e xcept to Send the poor s u cke r
up the river or maybe to the chair That s .

’
”
all I gotta say .
It was too much for the excitable Rol

l ins He swung on Carroll
—
. .
“
I l l take orders f om you Carrol l bu t
’
r ,
w
s rx SECONDS or DARKN ES S 23 1
b e fore I ll stand up and let a damned yegg

’
l ike him hand me th at line 0 talk I ll re

’ ’
s i gn an
’
“
Wait a minute interrupted Hall , .
H e crossed the room to the hall door and

fl ung it open Little Mrs Faber blink
. .
,
i n g and ill at ease and patently in the grip

o f a new and greater excitement minced ,
i nto the room .
“
Gentlemen she said softly very
, ,
m uch impres s ed wi th the spotlight position

“
s h e held the most marvellous thing has
,
—
d e veloped the most unbelievable
”
.
“
Yes yes Mrs Faber What is it ?
, , . .
You would hardly believe it E ven .
—
w hen Maggie she s the cook when she— ’
t o ld me I just said to her : Maggie I ‘
,
’
s a id if I didn t know
‘ ’
E unice took a hand She placed a hand .
l ightly over the little housekeeper s lips ’

.
“
What is it Mrs Faber ? Tell us, .
”
p lease .
“
It s E thel your maid
’
, .
232 SI X S ECONDS or DARKNESS
“
What about E thel
“
M aggie just went up in the attic
and there s he
f ound E the l , bound and
”
g gg
a ed and half d e ad !
234 SI X SECONDS OF DARKN ES S
ter In answer to a question as to where
.
E thel could be found Mrs Faber nodded , .
mysteriously .
“
—
I ll Show you soon enough j ust fol
’
low .
She led the way to a door which she flung

o pen and Hall D enson Rollins and Car
, , ,
—
roll with E unice and Harrel s on in the
—
rear followed her into a small neatly ,
furnished prettily decorated room with

, ,
Chi n tz curtain over the window through
which the morning sun streamed ch e erily .
The room itself was in perfect order ; the

b e d had not been S lept in the dre s s er was ,
n eatly fixed every chair in place

, Carroll .
looked around curiously .
“
The maid Mrs Faber ? , .
I said she was in the attic flashed the ,

“
o l d lady and She I S
,
.
But this
These are the servants quarters The ’
.
”
a ttic is up yonder and she indicated a
,
fl ight of steps so steep as to resemble a lad

d er which led from the maid s room ’
th r ough a trapdoor to a false attic or loft .
Carroll and Rollins produced flash lights

an d mounted swiftly to the top The girl
.
was lying on the rough floor bo arding

which covered the beams and over her
,
h overed the extremely articulate and v e ry

s o licitous Maggie explaining vociferously
,
why She could not unbind the cords which

h eld the girl . Carroll produced a kn ife
a n d in a few strokes released her Wi th .
w hi ch E thel promptly fainted .
It was the work of but a few minute s

f or Carroll and Rollins to bear her down
t he ladder and stretch her on the bed .
T hen the men retired the door closed and

, , ,
a fter leaving his whisky fl ask for purpose s
o f resuscita tion Rollins j o ined them

, It .
w as perhaps a half hour later that Mrs .
F aber Opened the door to announce that

t he combined e florts of herself E unice , ,
an d Maggie had s ucceeded in restoring
E thel to con s ciousness and that she could

236 SI X SECO ND S OF DARKN ESS
not talk now than ks to a gro wing hysteria

, .
Rather peculiar she wasn t found when ’
”
the house was first searched volunteered ,
Carroll .
“
NO answered Rollins ; I did not
,
have a chance to go over things as I wanted

to before I found Hartigan and once I had,
him I thought the case was solved And l .
left no orders for a search with my men

here ; in fact if Rafferty searched at all it
, ,
was on his own hook SO it isn t a bit pe

.
’
”
cu l iar .
The men repaired downstairs and Doc

tor Robinson was summoned It was .
more than an hour later that he came down

from upstairs to announce that E thel
would see the detectives but urging that
,
S he be made to talk as little as possible .
“
The poor girl has had a terrible time of
“
it s aid the man Of med icine
, She has .
b een lying in that cramped position and in

constant terror for twelve hours Be as .
”
eas y wi th her as you can .
you tell us what happened to y ou last

n ight— i f you feel well en oug
“
I ain t feel in very well sir but I ll tell
’ ’
, ,
’
al l I k now —
I I m feeling awful bad sir
.
’
, ,
’
but there ain t no chance of my gettin
’
’
things wrong because I ain t been doin ’
nothin g but lyin up there thi n kin for ’

,
’
it seems like twelve years S tead of twelve ’
”
hours S ir , .
She wiped the tears from her e yes con ,
trolled herself with an effort and went on ,
with her S tory :

“ ’
I come upstairs early last night sir so s , ,
to read a perfectly grand story in a maga

z ine I was readin it when all of a sud
.
’
den I hear s omebody outside A t first l .
’
—
think it s Donaldson he s the n e w butler ’
,
S i r ; but then I notice that the m an who is
walkin has got rubber heels on an I know

’
,
’
that Donaldson don t wear them and ’
neither does Mr Hamilton . .
“
Honest ! I got cold and hot all over at
’
the same time I run to the win der an
.
looked out to the garden There was .
some one cre ep in across t ward that bush

’ ’
y onder
Car oll walke d to the window and
r
looked . The bus h in qu estion was Situ

ated about sixty feet from the house an d
directly in front Of the big double doors

openi n g from the living room onto the
firs t floor veranda

- He interr upted the
.
g irl
“
What sort of looking m an was it ?
—
A big m an sir ; a very big man not so
,
tall S ir but he looked awful big in the

, ,
”
moonlight .
“
I s e e GO ahe ad
. .
Well at first I thought I would scream

,
for help but I knew if I did that the bur

,
g lar ou t s ide
“
You are sure it was a burglar ?
That s the first thing I thought of sir ;
’
an afterward as I m goin to tell you I

’ ’ ’
, ,
Found out for sure it was As I was sayin .

’
;ir I k new if I y e lled he d come in an Shoot

’ ’
,
240 SI X SEC ON DS OF DARKN ESS
me or cut my throat or do som e thin ter ’
’
rible like that So I just got down an
.
crawled under the bed thinki n that ,

’
maybe if I laid real quiet he wouldn t do

, ,
’
me no harm .
“
For a long time there wasn t an y noise ’
— —
an then Oh it was awful ! I seen my
’
door openin S low an careful so s it

’
,
’
,
’
wouldn t creak I was that scared I

’
.
couldn t hardly breathe an was all

’
,
’
cramped up with lyin under th bed an I ’ ’
,
’
got right hysterical .
The man come in the room an walked ’
all around I had turned OE my light but

.
,
’
there s a light right outside the door an
’
that made the r oom pretty bright an I no

’
ticed that it was shinin right on me where ’
I was layin under the bed I was scared

’
.
to stay where I was cause all he d of had ,

’ ’
to do to see me would of been to look SO .
’
I made up my mind to try to move ; that s
where I m ade a terrible mistak e sir ; be ,
242 SIX SECON DS OF DARKN ESS
’
There wasn t nothin else for me to do ’
S ir so I crawled out an when I made as if

’
, ,
to scream he tells me if I do he s going to ’
kill me right away ; but if I don’t m ake no

noise no harm will come to me So I tol d .
h im I d do anything if he j ust wouldn t

’ ’
k ill me an he said that he d have to bind

’ ’
me and put a piece of cloth in my mouth

s o I wouldn t scream an then I d h ave
’ ’ ’
to climb up them there steps into the

attic .
“
I ast him what was he going to do with
me when he got me there an he said he ,
’
wasn t going to hurt me at all if I did that

’
but that he d kill me if I didn t or if I

’ ’
tried any foolishness SO I said all right .

,
I d do it
’
.
“
He tied my hands behind my back an ,
’
even if he was a burglar he was a real gen ,
tle feller once he got started because he ,
kept askin me was the rope too tight a n

’ ’
did it hurt too much an sayin he was sorry ’ ’
h e had to do it but safety first was his mo t

,
ter Then when he got me up there he

.
, ,
laid me down as easy as he could an tied ’
my feet together said to wait for a couple

,
o f hours an then commence ki cki n on the

’ ’
floor an some one would come an let me

’ ’
f ree .
“
Then he goes down the ladder again
a n d commences p rowl in about my room ’
l ike he was wai tin for some one I rolled

’
.
o ver easy so s I could see the corner Of the

’
r oom by the door yonder an who should I

’
s e e come up the stairs but D onaldson

u :
“
D onaldson
The butler sir I held my breath be
, .
,
c ause I knew right away that he was gonna
shoot D onaldson but he didn t do nothin

,
’ ’
O f the kind ; they shook hands an started

’
talkin ’
I was S p ris e d Sir because it was
.
’
, ,
like they was old friends But S till I .
thought maybe D onaldson didn t know ’
that he was a burglar an I was just gonna ,

’
m ake a noise when D onaldson says to him

— he says
Di dj a
‘
run into an ybody up here ,
Lefty ? ’
“ ’
An then Lefty grins just like that , .
he says ; some fool girl musta heard ‘
m e an was hid in under th e bed

’ ’ ’
.
“
—
Then D onaldson says S hall I use the
v ery words S ir ? ,
“
—
Yes my girl the very words
, .
"
He says : D amn the luck Just like ‘
that sir An what did you do wi th her

‘ ’
, .
,
Lefty ? ’
“
Wi th that the man he calls Lefty
’
kinder grins She s a nice commonsens e .
‘
girl he says
,
’
I told her I d kill her if she
.
‘ ’
didn t do what I wanted an I ve got her

’
,
’ ’
bound an gagged an all trussed up nice ’ ’

,
l yin up in the attic yonder By the tim e

’
some one finds her we ll have made our get ’
away
’
.
“
Well sir I can t tell you how terrible
, ,
’
s hocked I was at findin out D onaldson s

’ ’
true nature That s the way with men .

’
,
s ir ; you don t kn ow nothin about them u h

’ ’
Then Lefty shak es his head I think .

‘
I ought to get in on that he says

’
, .
NOthin doin
‘
says D onaldson
’
.
‘
Though we might give you a little rake
Ofl . But you said all you wanted was
them papers out of Mr Hamilton s safe .
’
.
’
You got em asks the burglar

‘ ’
.
D onaldson nodded yes an took a ’
packet tied with red ribbon out of h is

pocket an handed em to him’
There ’
.
‘
they are th whole bunch That s yo ur

-
’
.
’
end less n we want to divide with you

,
’
.
’
Oh says the burglar I m gettin o u t

‘ ’ ‘ ’ ’
, ,
on the top side even if I don t get no coin ! ’
I g uess I d better be
’
N0 time like now says Donaldson

‘
,
’
.
Y Ou go down the front steps an be

‘ ’
m ighty careful because Ol d man H am il

’ ’
ton s in the l ib ry an he s got company
’ ’
, .
Th ey was raisin some sort Of hell — that s ’ ’ ’
j us t the word he used sir an me thinki n , ,

’ ’
that he was a respectable man S ir — the y ,

‘
was raisin hell he says last I saw Of e m

’ ’ ‘ ’
.
, ,
S1 x SECONDS OF
47 DARKN ESS 2
Y ou ll fin d the latch on the front door

’
”
l oose Take it easy an whatev e r y do
.
,
’
, ,
’
d o n t get caught
’
.
I won t says the other feller No

‘ ’ ’ ‘
, .
d anger of that I ll go right out th fron t ’ ’

.
like I owned the house .

’
SO they talked a little more an then

’
D onaldson says If you meet anybody ‘
th ere ain t to be no shootin understand ?

’ ’
Just beat it back upstairs an I ll take care ’ ’
o f you
’
.
I ain t no gunman says the burglar

‘ ’
,
’
.
You got a gat ain t you ? asks D on

‘
,
’ ’
al ds on .
’
Yes he says ; but so has Red Harti
‘
,
‘
an an he ain t no gunman
’ ’ ’
g , .
Hartigan ain t got a gun says D on

‘ ’
a ld s on I searched him Cause I didn t

‘ ’ ’
.
w ant no rough s tu fi
’
.
“
Just one minute interrupted Carroll , .
Y ou are quite positive that D onaldson

s aid he had s earched Hartigan and tha t
”
H artigan did not have a gun ?
2 48 s rx SECONDS OF DARKNES S
“
Yes
“ ”
What s that got to do with it ? brok e
’
“
in Rollins roughly D idn t we fin d the
’
.
g un on Hartigan
“
Well they tell each other goo d b ye
,
- ,
an D onaldson repeats that there ain t to

’ ’
’ ’
be no shootin an then the burglar goes ,
’
downstairs soft an easy , .
“
For a few minutes after he s gone D on ’
al ds on stands there like he s thi nk in ab o ut

’ ’
som e thin an then h e begins to sm i le

’
,
’
.
’
Then he comes into my room an stands at
’
the foot Of them there steps an calls up to
me .
‘
D on t be worriedhe s ays
’
, E thel,
’
,
I m goin downstairs for a minute an as

‘ ’ ’ ’
,
’
soon as I come back I ll let you loose .
’
“ ’
An I didn t answer him sir ; I wouldn t
’ ’
,
’
talk to that kind of a man an be sides , , ,
“
n a i vely that rag was in my mouth an I ’
,
cou ldn t SO he goes downstai rs an th ere

’
.
,
’
I lay S ir ; couldn t move nor nothin an

,
’ ’ ’
f rightened to death with all I d been

’
2 50 S1 x SECONDS OF DARKN ESS
Carroll immediately dispatched H all

downstairs with instructions to have
Roberts bring Hartigan to the girl s ro om ’
.
In five minutes Hall was back and behin d

,
him the immense figure of the wounded

burglar .
“ ”
Is that the man ? queried Carroll .
The girl glanced at him briefly .
“
NO sir ; certainly not The man th ey
, .
called Lefty was an undersized runt of a

”
man not like this one at all !
,
CHAPT ER XIV
H E passing of the hours had

served only to complicate the
Hamilton case At the outset it
.
had been pregnant with the unusual but ,
n ot fraught with any very great mystery .
N ow however the aspect had altered

, , .
In the beginning D avid Carroll had be

fo re him the fact of the murder and three
persons who confessed to the crime In .
a ddition to that he had a notorious crim
inal whose coincidental presence at the

scene O f the shooting had fastened about
him a web of circumstantial evidence suf
ficie n t to convict before the most open
m inded jury.
But now it had Changed Proof of an

.
,
almost incontrovertible nature had been

,
furnished that neither E unice D uval nor

her fiancé had killed Hamilton ; the bullet
25 1
252 S1x SECONDS OF DARKN ESS
from the revolver which E un ice had u se d

ha d been l ocated at a poin t where it co uld
not ha ve gone had either Badger or Harti
gan fired it It was fairl y well s ettled
.
that Vincent Harrelson had not fir ed .
An d Badger s shot had been accounted for

’
as the one whi ch had wounded Hartigan .
There was the matter of the six seconds

of darkness already explain ed by Harti
,
gan s perfectly plausible confession that

’
he had extinguished the lights to facilitate

his escape and turned them on agai n after
being shot so as to avoid detection in his
sanctuary behind the screen It had also.
been pretty well proven that three S hots

were fired ; Badger s and E unice s in the
’ ’
first few seconds of darkness neither shot ,
of which struck Hamilton and the fatal

,
shot which was fired immediately after th e

,
lights went on .
By a simple process of deduction that ,
shot must have been fired by Hartig an ;

yet if it were true that Badger s bullet
,
’
254 SI X SECONDS OF DARK N ESS
cook They assembled in the living ro o m

.
,
—
Carroll and two of his men the third h a v
ing Hartigan in a chair on the veran d a ;
E unice and Vincent Harrelson ; Police
Commissioner Hall and D enson the law ,
yer And last but undeniably not leas t

.
, ,
was Barrett Rollins chief of the City s ,

’
plain Clothes detective force

- .
Rollins was seated near the door

through which Hamilton and young Vin
cent had struggled just before the former

was killed His S traight legged Chair was
.
-
tilted back against the wall his brogan e d ,
feet battered viciously against the slender

legs a rank pipe was clenched firmly b e
,
- - —
tween his none too even teeth unlighted .
His clothes although very quiet and im

,
m acul ate l y pressed gave a subtle impres

,
—
sion of untidiness it may have been th e
narrow collar or the crooked set of his tie ;
but whatever it was the professional de
, ,
te ctiv e seemed out of place in the picture .
Furthermore he was nervous a n d

,
SI X SECOND S OF DARKN ESS 255
fidge ty, and that despite the fact that he

was making a visible effort to keep himself
under control Hall glancing at him not
.
,
—
unkindly for he admired the man s in ’
domitable will and unflinching courage

even while he detested him personally
imagined that he was still chafing at the
bit disgusted with Carroll s elevation to a
,
’
position above him on the present case .
An d yet Hall was glad now that he

, ,
had summoned Carroll s aid If he had’

.
done nothing else Carroll had at least

,
proved that the three original confessors

— two of whom really believed their guilt
—had not killed Hamilton He had not
.
done it with any display of mental pyro

technics with any pussy footing around
,
-
with an eye glued to a magnifying glass ;

yet he h ad done it His methods had been
.
s imple to the point of being ludicrous
a s he himself had explained he had sim ,
p yl set O u t to marshal all f acts and S epa

rate the relevant from the irrelevant then ,
to weigh the pros and cons of the fo rm er

in the balance .
Rollins Hall fancied would have done

, ,
nothing of the kind From the moment

.
Rollins had appeared at headquarters close

on to midnight of the previous day he ,
—
had s tubbornly almost too stubbornly
maintained that Red Hartigan was the
murderer .
There was sound reasoning behind his

contention ; no doubt about that for in the
,
first place Rollins knew no thing ab o ut

Frederick Badger Hall wondered idly
.
why Carroll had kept all knowledge of

Badger from Rollins He knew that C ar
.
roll did nothing without a motive but ,
what particular Object that move could

have in view he was unable to understan d .
That it had one he did not doubt ; but

what ?
A half dozen times S ince then the n a t
ural antagonism between the polished ,
p lacid Carroll and the brusque almost,b ru

2 58 SIX SECON DS OF DARK N ES S
the man ca lled Lefty on the inside of the

house whi le a fourth kept watch outs ide
, .
N ot by any means an o riginal plan of pro

cedu te yet one which in view of what had
, ,
transpired complicated things c onsider

,
ably .
There was for instance the matter of

, ,
H artigan s revolver from which one bul

’
let had been fire d Hartigan had stub .
born l y mainta in ed that he had no revolver ,
although his contention in its elf was sub

j e ct to a hundred -per -cent discount in
view of the fact that such a Statement if ,
believed would automatically absolve

,
—
him But there was the gun and in con
.
trav e n tion of the damning fact and in s up
port of H artigan s statement there was the’
casual story Of the maid recounting the

conv ersation between the butler and Lefty
regarding H artigan s revolver ; the latter s ’ ’
contention that Hartigan did carry a gun

and the former s that he had searched him
’
and was positive th at he did not .

SI X SECONDS OF DARKN ESS 2 59
S ummed up three of the original prin

,
ci p al s in th e case had been cleared abs o
l u te l y ; the fourth had developed m i tigat

in g evidence And the question of who
.
actually killed Hamilton was apparently

farther from solution than it had been a
half hour after the crime was com mitted .
It was at this juncture when matters ,
had apparently reached an impasse that ,
the telephone on the centre table jangled

impatiently C arroll rose to answer it
. .
The forelegs of Rollins chair came down

’
slowly to the floor .
“
Hello hello ! Yes this is Mr Car
, , .
”
roll Oh that you D onaldson ?
.
, ,
”
Yes indeed
, .
Rollins eyes popped open Hall and

’
.
D enson rose abruptly and stood rigidly by

their chairs D onaldson ! D onaldson
.
,
the butler ! Asking for a n d speaking to

C arroll ! An d Carroll apparently not at
a l l surprised Carroll s voice went on
’
.
s moothly
—
bv e?
”
H e p laced the re tt iv er ge n tly on the
others ; the gro u p w hos e b la nk f aces and
e yes gav e e v i d e n ce to the su rpr is e they
fe l t . A d ull flus h had m oun te d to Rol

li ns ’
—
fore ha nd it was as though he had
been trick ed , an d he w as an r
g y
. I t was
‘
Who was tha t on the p hon e th e n , Mr .
”
Carroll ?
“
Jus t Do nal ds on cam e the qui et an
,
“ ”
s wer I had been w ai tin g f or that call
. .
Rollins l m ed forw ard tense ly .
“
You had been waitin for D onaldson ’
to (a ll y ou
“
Why yes ! What s wrong about
,
’
tha t
Rolli ns produced a large handk erchief ,
lavender bordered and mopped his fore

-
,
hea d .
262 SIX SECON DS OF D ARKN ES S
right to make a fool outa me ? Huh!

I)Oes i t ?
Carroll controlled himself beautifully
almost too well .
“
Here here ! What s all the excite
,
’
”
ment Rollins ?
,
“
Excitement enou h Whatcha thi nk
g .
I am a schoolboy ? A correspondence
,
school detective ? Huh ? I ask you

that ? Well if you want to kn ow what
,
—
I think of it I think you an your whole ’
messy crowd can go plumb to the devil !

”
Get th at ?
“
Wait a minute Rollins ; wa a a it a
-
,
- -
m in u te ! You re flying off the handle too

’
”
quick .
“
It s none of your business You ve
’
.
’
had me trotting around with you like a

’
monkey on the end of a string You ain t .
told me a thing more than you ve told any ’
’
one else Y ou got me to sit up here an
.
make a fool of myself when all the time

you knew D onaldson was in on the know
SIX S ECON DS OF DARKN ESS 263
it I m finished ! D one ! That goes

.
’
sh e l ays Mr Hall You can take my

, . .
i an m ake this tea hound fiv e

’
n at o n -
g ,
O Ck in the afternoon detective head of

- - -
Ir pl ain clothes force

- Bull ! A Swell .
’
1 you d make Carroll ! Why by , ,
d
Bu t C arroll refused to lose his temper .
tead his voice took on an alm ost plead

,
note and he laid his hand lightly on

,
ll in S arm
’
.
”
‘
Come come now old man ! he said in
, ,
“
h ee d l in g tone That s no way to lose ’
.
l l he ad What if I did keep you in the

‘
k about being wise to D onaldson ?

1 t you see that I was only doing it to
’
e my own face in case he fliv v e re d ?

st suppose I went spouting around that
n al d son was on my s tafl and suppose ,
had double crossed me and really made

-
e t away ; I d have been a sweet laugh

’
-
stock then Rollins Can t you see , .

’
—
t ? Sure you can you know you d ’
play the game the same way I ll bet you .

’
know someth ing about this v ery case that

”
I don t know hey ?
’
Rollins subsided suddenly apparently ,
m o llifie d .
“
Whatdaya mean he growled surlily , ,
”
I know s om e thin about this case ? ’
“
Haven t you run across some little clue
’
or something that you ve kept to yourself ; ’
just some little tin y thing that you re try ’
ing to run down on your own SO as to Show

”
me up ?
Rollins was plainly at a loss for an in
te rp re tati on of Carroll s meaning
’
.
“ ”
Come now pursued the Smaller m an
, ,
”
isn t that a fact ?
’
Rollins big hands went to his hips and

’
,
’
he stared into Carroll s eyes aggressively .
“ ” ’
What in th hell you d riv in at ? he
’
“
questioned furiously T ryin to make a
’
.
monkey out of me again ? Cause if you ’
are
“
N O indeed ; believe me Rollins noth
, , ,
266 S IX SECON DS OF DARK N ES S
thing which resulted in D onaldson s em ’
ployment in this household as butler had ,
nothing whatever to do wi th this murder

case And I don t care to discuss th e busi
.
’
ness of the man who has paid me a re

”
tain e r That s all The suspicion of a
’
. .
twinkle flashed in Carroll s eyes as he ’
“
added briefly That must appeal to
°
”
your sense of ethics .
Rollins Shook his head .
“
Sounds like foolishness to me he s aid ,
.
“
An if you re goin to keep things to your
’ ’ ’
’
self I don t see what you want me hangin
’
”
around for He started to ri s e but Car
.
,
roll motioned him back .
“
NO I d rather have you stay Just as
,
’
.
’
—
I ve told those gentlemen there s always ’
more than an even Chance that my mind

will get on the wrong track and that I ll ’
—
make a mistake s omewhere and j ust as
two heads are better than one four are ,
”
better than three .
E specially snapped Rollins where

, ,
”
on e of em s solid ivory
’ ’
.
Carroll grinned amiably .
“
,
Y es especially where one is of so lid
,
”
i v ory .
—
The front door be ll rang twice then
-
once Carroll strode toward the hall door

. .
“ “
D onaldson he flung back ; I m sure
,
’
that s who it is
’
.
He disappeared into the hall and ,
within three minutes was back followed ,
by D onaldson un kempt his face showin g

, ,
the lack of sleep the previous night his ,
clothes streaked with dirt N or was D on .
ald s on alone O n the ex butler s right

’
.
-
wrist was one of a pair of han dcufl s The .
other han dcq was tightly clamped on the

wrist of the slender furtive eyed man with
-
,
him . The two han dcufis were connecte d

by a competent looking chain
- .
As for the stranger he too was dis hev , , ,
e ll e d it was quite evident that his capture

had not been unresisted He glan ced ap

.
p re h e n s i v e ly about the room and

, finally
his eyes rested on Barrett Roll ins He .
sighed and chewed nervously at his under

lip.
“ ”
Who is that with you Donal ds on ?
,
questioned Carroll innocently .
The butler smiled Slightly and waved

his free hand toward the captive .
“
Mister Lefty Scamm on alias Shi fty
, ,
”
alias a half dozen o ther things .
“
An d why did you make him prisoner?
D onaldson smiled the smile of supreme
trium ph . It was his big moment .
“ ”
Lefty Scammon he said oracularly
, ,
is the m an who m urdere d Mr H arml .
”
ton !
276 S IX SECONDS OF DARKNES S
facial control was a vital p art of

s ion e r,
Ca rroll s stock in trade and the chan ces

’
were
Rollins had tensed rigidly H is eyes .
bored into those of the new suspe ct Hall .
S hifted h is gaze from Roll in s face to that

’
o f Lefty S cammon an d wha t he re ad there

,
j arred him agai n .
F or beyond a que stion of doubt Lefty

, ,
S cammon was stu nn ed wi th surpris e For .
pe rhaps fifteen seconds he tried to s peak ,
opening his mouth and clos ing it agai n

without uttering a sound other than a
c hoked gurgle Carroll strolled to the big
.
doors and nodded briefly to Roberts who ,
entered the room followed by the ,
wounded Hartigan The tableau w ould.
have been ludicrous were it not SO fra ught

with melodrama tic in tensity .
And finally Scammon regain ed his

speech .
“
Wha whadaya think of that ! he
- ”
“
gasped O h my Gawd whadaya think
.
, ,
of hat !
t —
Red they got me for killin
’
I i a m il ton
H artigan
’
s p oI Se was perfect . He
m e rely hrugged
S .
“
That s a habit of theirs Le fty They
’
, .
”
g o t me for the same thing .
The dry humour of his remark an d the ,
f act that it was tim ed to break into a S i

l ence so tense as to be nerve wrecking
-
,
b rought involuntary sm iles to the faces of

a ll in the room The terribly grim humour
.
o f the S ituation could not fail to appear to
o verwrought nerves It was Rollins who .
broke in roughly as usual

, .
“ ”
A lot 0 rot ! he raved
’
Hartigan is .
th e man who done it an that s all there is

’ ’
,
”
to it !
D onaldson turned to Carroll .
“
What s that he s sayin chief ? D oes
’ ’ ’
he really think Hartigan done it ?

“ “
S O he says returned Carroll ,What .
”
do you think about it ?
“ ”
He s wrong came back D onalds on
’
,
“
e ctfully
r spe Y s ee chief I searched
.
’
, ,
Hartigan before the burglary an h e didn t ,

’ ’
p ack a rod at all .
“
You are quite sure of that ?
Posi tive .
How so ?
I searched him Y s ee I was in on it .
’
, ,
an d I wasn t runn in any Chances of rough

’ ’
S tu d — which is just what happened ”

.
“
The third m an concerned ; who was
“
A yegg they call Pal Conover ; yeller
as a dog He beat it when the thing
.
—
started scared sti ff He didn t have a .
’
”
gun either This here bird indicating
, .
,
“
Lefty Scamm on was the only one who ,
”
had one .
Scammon whirled on it .
“
That s a damned lie D onaldson an
’
, ,
’
”
you know it D idj a fin d a gun on m e ?
.
“ ”
Not after I caught you no returned , ,
“ ’
the ex butler
- But it wasn t SO h ard to
.
Chuck it away .
The whole business from the tim e y ou

”
first came here to work for Mr Hami lton . .
D onaldson seemed not at all ave rs e to

holding the centre of the stage He .
started deliberately and talked Clearl y and

distinctly throughout his story .
“
About a mon th ago the chief M r — , .
Carroll here sends for me ; I m working

-
’
in Chicago then He tells me that he s

.
’
been retained by this man H amilton to

gather evidence for some graft investiga
tion directed against the police force I m .
’
’
to work in Mr Hamilton s house as butler
.
,
him of course knowing that I m a tec

, ,
’ ’
.
“
I take the job my work bein to watch
,
’
an see that there ain t no attempt made

’ ’
to get away wi th a bunch of docum entary

evidence that Mr Hamilton has in his
.
safe ; evidence that ain t any too S weet ’
readin to certain eyes It se em in as

’
.
’
though th parties goin to be caught in

’ ’
th dragnet was wise that it was kept in

’
this house .
SIX SECON DS OF DARKN ES S 2 75
Things run along pretty easy for a

w hile an then I meets up with this guy
’
S cammon .Right away I spot hi m for a

c rook an I kno w he must have s om e th in
’ ’
u p his S leeve or he wouldn t be hangin

’ ’
a round an bu yin me drinks whenever we

’ ’
g o t alone together .
There ain t no special use in goin into

’ ’
d e tails of how I played this fis h for a sucker

-but the long and Short of it is that in
a bout two weeks I had him thinking I was
th e charter member of the independent
o rder of yeggs .
“
Then his proposition comes ; he don t ’
t ell me nothin about no graft investiga

’
t ion but he says that he s in with the police

’
— stool pigeon see — an that certain

,
’
p arties what is goin to be caught wrong’
i n this graft thing has framed up a bur

g lary .
“
O f course I knew what the y was after .
That there evidence Mr H amilton had .
was about all the written dope there

was O nce let the right ones get their

.
’ ’
hands on it an bu rn it up Hamilton an ,
his Civic Reform League would have m ade

fools outa thems elves tryin to prove any ’
thing .
“
S o Scammon tells me that this h e re
yegg job is under the protecti on of the
police department ; that him an Red Har ’
tigan an this here yeller dog Pal Con

’
over is goin to work ; me he lpin from the

,
’ ’
inside That s to make it look real see ?

.
’
Scammon says me an th other two can

’ ’
divide the boodle all he wants is s ome ,
papers outa th safe ’

.
“
Well sir a blind man could of seen
, ,
through that game It was too easy An . .

’
I wasn t tellin it to Mr Hamilton either ;

’ ’
.
,
—
me figurin whether I was right or wrong
’
—that he mig ht spill the beans when the

time come .
“
I framed the night myself ; Maggie was
out an I thought E thel was goin out too
,
’ ’
, .
She had asked for the evenin off an I

’ ’
,
278 SI X SECONDS OF DARKNES S
in
’
room He says he thi nks he he ars some
.
one in the livi ng room s o l walk i n there , .
I t s empty Mr H am i lto n an Mr H arrel

’ ’
, . .
s on bei n in the library SO I com e back

’
.
an tip Re d off he can s lip behi nd the s creen

’
in the livi n room an out thro ugh the win

’ ’
—
der which was h alf ope n which s am e he
,
s ays he ll do an I go upst airs to Mr H am

’ ’
, .
i lton s room to put th p apers back in th

’ ’ ’
”
safe .
“
What p ape rs ? The ques ti on came
from Comm i s s io ner H all .
Th evide nce Mr H am ilto n had

“ ’
. .
But I tho ugh t you s aid

O h ! Th at bunch th at Le fty Scammon
had ? Gee I ain t that so ft ! The s tufi
,
’
he got wasn t nothin but copies We s ti ll ’

’
.
”
f d !
’
g o t the ori gi nal s s a e an s o un

”
- -
O O oh ! A si gh of s urp ri s e we nt up
from somewhere in the room Donal dson .
ch uc kled s o ftl y and conti nue d

“
Tha t was whe re m y job e nde d I had .
al l the dope on the m en who w e re in the

b h
’
b h d id hi b
’ ’
ro e r u n t e n t av n t n u t
y. y e o
some false dm ume nts that didn t do e m

' ’ ’
no good, on I had the name of the man

’
who was be hind the thing it wasn t s uch — ’
a hard j ob ge ttin that into. e ithe r

’
. Eve n
a c ro ok ll talk too much it you go at him
’
”
ri ght .
He pause d for as se cond .
"
But right the re was whe re thi ngs
S tarte d goin wrong All of u s udde n
’
.
th e re was two shots from the li vi ng room

un a sort of u c rush I mode it j ump for
’
.
the winde r, un while I looke d I see n lights

’
c ome on downstairs whe re e ve r thi n h d

y g a
be e n dark. on j us t the n some o ne shot
’
.
again from be hind that bush yonde r

s hout ti t y ft e e t away from the li vi d room -
d o or that ope ns o nto the veranda
An the n I see n it man runnin uway
’
r
irs t as he could travel

j “ ’
u s t u s f .
Ao . ge ntle me n, I m he re to swear by
’
e ve rythin in the world that th man who

’ ’
e d u on be s t it after firin that shot

j p
’ ’
u m p
280 SIX SECON DS OF DARKN ES S
was this here Mister Lefty Scammon ! I

”
could see him that plain in th moonlight ! ’
There followed fiv e seconds of stunned

silence Carroll broke in with his quiet
.
,
soothing voice
“
And after that ?
“
Well Sir I plumb forgot all about
, ,
E thel bein tied up in the attic I forgot

’
.
everything except that som e thin rotten ’
had happened Who Lefty had shot or

.
why I didn t know I beat it down th

’
.
’
front steps through the library an outa

, ,
’
the window to the veranda I scooted .
—
down past the door an looked in there ’
w as Miss E unice an Mr Harrelson

’
.
bendin o ver Mr Hamilton I knew no

’
. .
,
matter how bad he was hurt they d see he ,

’
got the best of attention My j ob was .
—
clear i t was up to me to catch Scamm on ,
an I lit a rag after him

’
.
“
An believe me this bird is som e e l u
’
, ,
sive kid ! An when I got him he put up a

’
fair good scrap for such a little fellow .

282 SIX SECON DS OF DARKN ES S
“
We ve got him haven t we R ollin s ?
’
,
’
The detective shrugged .
“
He says he didn t do it ’
.
“ ’
But we ve got the goods on him ; you ll ’
admit yourself that he hasn t got a chance ’
won t you
’
Rollins face flamed ’
.
“
I m adm ittin nothin
’
This is your
’ ’
.
”
case go handle it your own way .
“
I m afraid it s the Chair for you Scam
’ ’
,
” “
mon said Carroll sadly
, We ve got .
’
you where we want you an d we re going ,

’
to make you pay Rollins you see don t

.
, ,
’
want to say any thing officially because he

has resigned from the police force
“ ”
What s that ? gasped Scam mo n
’
.
”
It s a lie ! flashed Rollins
’
.
Carroll turned quietly to Hall .
“
This is the police commissioner Scam ,
mon Mr Hall didn t Rollin s resign his

. .
,
’
”
position on the force a few min utes back ?
Hall took his cue cleverly .
“ ” “
Yes he an swered promptly and his
, ,
”
resignation is accepted .
SIX SECON DS OF DARKN ESS 283
Rollins would have interrupted but ,
Carroll ordered him back S cammon .
turned large hunted eyes to him , .
“
You re tellin me th truth ? he
’ ’ ’
’
pleaded Honest t Gawd you ain t
.
’
“ ’
What I ve said is on the level , Scam
m on
“
It s a dirty lie from Rollins
’ p
.
:
”
It S the truth ! veri fied Hall
’
.
”
Then said Scammon simply there
, ,
ain t a ch an cs t for me an I m not gonna

’ ’ ’
be th goat S long s Rollins was th head

’
.
’ ’ ’
of the plain clothes squad I was ready to

-
take Chances but now there S ,

’
This tim e Rollins spoke He shook his .
fis t in the ratlike face of the little man .
You dam little runt ’
You can t scare me Rollins he said

’
, ,
quietly He turned to Carroll

. R ol .
l ins , here , is the m an who m urdered H am

”
il ton !
CHAPTE R XVI
N the face of a crisis a man will ex
courage o r cowardice And

b ibit .
Barrett Rollins accused at the

,
eleventh hour of a crime with which he had

apparently had no connection played his ,
rOl e well .
He did not bluster ; he did not shrink .
Instead he seemed suddenly cool al

,
—
though one might have noticed an occa
sio ual biting of his lips a twitching of his
,
huge muscular hands a furtive glance

, ,
from the corners of his little eyes .
F or Ro llins was co rnered The chain.
of evidence woven so cleverly by circum

stance around the other principals i n the
drama had suddenly wound its elf a bout
him With S cammon s accusation loose
.
’
—
ends of the S tory seemed to meet or al
234
286 SIX SECON DS OF DAR KN ES S
—
listen here Lefty if you can prove the
,
charge you ve just made you re in a fair

’ ’
way to get Clear of this murder charge .
Burglary you re in for whether or no ’
, .
Take my advice and come clean with the

”
whole Story Are you willing ?
.
The expression of the little fello w was

a lmost pitiful .
“
Sure I am Sir As I said sir I was n t
, .
, ,
‘
’
s qu eal in on no pal
’
— s l ong s Rollins was
’ ’
on the force I knowed he d see me safe ’
through some way But maybe I d better .

’
tell all of it like it happened .
”
D yuh mean growled Rollins inter
’
,
“
rogati v e l y that you re gonna sit th ere an
,
’ ’
”
listen to his drivel ?
“ ’
Yes I guess we d better They ve all
, .
’
had a Chance to talk except Scammon GO .
”
ahead Lefty
, .
The little man pas sed a nerv ous hand

across his lips .
“
All th be ginn in of my story goes
’ ’
”
pretty well with what thi s fly cop indi ,
SI X SECONDS OE DAR KN ESS 287
ea tin g Donaldson said thing , . Only one

is di fferent ; th man who came to me with ’
the proposition was Chief Rollins yonder .
He said that Hamilton had some papers in

his safe which he wanted He seemed .
’
to know all about what they w ere an
all.
He said he wanted me to get a coupla

good yeggs an work the house Wanted ’
.
to make it look like th real thing see so s ’
,
’
when they found th stuff was gone they d ’ ’
th ink it had just been took accide ntallik e

wit th rest of th swag Th thing looked
’ ’ ’
.
’
’
pretty easy Specially after I managed to
,
strike up an acquaintance wit this here ’
guy I t ought he was th butler see ?

.
’ ’
Well he com es across elegant I was a

, .
boob for not knowin he was too easy but ’
h ow was I to know they was lookin for

’
j ust this kind of a move ?

“ ’
Him an Red Hartigan an Pal Con ’
o ver was to divide what they got I was .
to get th things Rollins wanted an meet

’ ’
288 SIX S ECON DS OF DAR KN ES S
him out yonder by that bush y see about ,

’
fifty or sixty feet beyond th porch door

’
.
O f course b avin th butler fixed it looked

’ ’
, ,
easy An there wasn t no chancs t for me

.
’ ’
to do Rollins dirt Cause he had th goods ,

’ ’
’
on m e for ano ther little job of mine an ,
he said he d send me up if I didn t come

’ ’
across fair an square Oh I ain t even ’

.
,
’
s qu e al in on him now because I want to

’
th Chief has always treated me right ; but

’
murder I won t fa ce for no man ’

.
“
— —
A ll what th butler D onaldson says ’
about th robbery happened just like that

’
.
I got down t th front hall an out into th

’ ’ ’ ’
garden It was pretty bright an I didn t

.
,
’ ’
have no trouble s p ottin th bush Rollins ’ ’
w as hid behind see ? I had th packet in

’
—
me pocket an I had my gun out ” ’
.
“
You had your revolver in your hand ?
Sure a 3 8 special wit one of the butt
’
.
,
plates busted I ha d took it out when I.
got t th bottom of th front stairs because

’ ’ ’
there was two fellers qu arre l l in hell bent

’
I hope he gets him ! Rollins was

‘ ’
sayin over an over again I hope he kills

’ ’ ‘
.
—
that Hamilton
“
—
Just then th lights went out flooie ! ’
j ust like that There was two shots or .

,
one I ain t sure which Then th lights

,
’
.
’
flashed on in about fiv e or six s econds .
There they was standin up kinder funny ,

’
an th young lady yonder had the revolver

’ ’
in her hand This geezer Hamilton was .
starin around like he didn t know what to

’ ’
make Of it an Rollins lets out a line of

,
’
cuss words that d of burned if you d Of ’ ’
touched a match to em ’
.
Missed him he says fierce lik e

‘
By ,
’
, .
‘
God I ll get him myself !

,
’ ’
“ ’
An with that he outs with his gat an
’
takes one crack at Hamilton An b lieve .

’
,
’
me mister when Rollins shoo ts he don t

, ,
’
—
usually miss not Often Take it from m e .
,
it wasn t no cold blooded murder he was

-
’
that excited an all Anyway w en I seen ’

.
,
’
Hamilton fallin b lieve me I didn t thi nk ’
,
’
,
’
SI X SECONDS OF DARKNESS 29 1
of nothin but makin a get away ! I drops

’ ’
-
’
m e gun hops to me feet an makes tracks
, ,
for Ri ver Street an I guess that s when ,

’ ’
this here D onaldson seen me because he ,
come after me right away An that s th .

’ ’ ’
”
truth .
Rollins filled his pipe from a well used

-
sack tamped it down with meticulous care

, ,
lighted it carefully and puff ed deeply two ,
o r three times When he spoke his voice

.
was quiet and inquiring rather than

bitter .
“
It looks like story tellin is th most
- ’ ’
”
pop lar indoor sport around here he
’
,
started slowly choosing his words with ,

“
evident care SO it s up to me to have
.
’
m y innin s an to explain how I know Har

’ ’
’
tigan done it and why I ve been insisting
,
o n that all along .
“
To go back a little ways y l l probably ,
’
remember th is m ornin when Carroll here ’
says that maybe I k now s om e thin about ’
th case I ain t tellin ? Yeh ? Well he

’ ’ ’
,
294 SI X SECO NDS OE DARKN ES S
if you shot from behind that bus h have ,
struck in the ceiling yonder where Miss

D uval s bullet hit
’
N0 you di dn t shoot .
,
’
Hartigan Rollins , .
“
—
I swear I did that s the truth if I ever ’
’
told it Carroll An after I shot I beat
, .
’
it right down to headquarters an they ,
just got th news in there an sent me

’ ’
up here wit Hawk ins an Cartwright’ ’

.
What s wrong wit that story ?

’ ’
“ ’
As a sto ry it s a dandy Rol l ins te , ,
“
turned Carroll calm l y I congratulate .
—
you on it But as the truth no thin g do
.
”
ing !
I s pose y can prove it ain t th truth
’ ’ ’ ’
,
”
huh ?
“
Yes certainly I can
, .
”
D o it then ! ,
“
—
All right how about this Perhaps
you did not know that we have down at
the police station the m an who shot
Re d Hartigan ! H is name is F re d erick
”
Badger .
296 SI X SECONDS OE DARKNES S
plan was to let it go 03 just like you

planned an d then make the whole thing
,
public The killing of Mr Hamilton

. .
changed those plans considerably .
You ve always had a reputation for b eing

’
hot headed ; a dozen times in your p olice

-
career you ve been on the carpet for s hoot

’
ing men without cause Scammon s story .

’
sounds true ; there s just one more link’
—
necessary would you m ind letting m e see
”
your revolver ?
“
Th hell with you ! I ll let yo u see
’ ’
n
noth ing .
o
“
D on t be foolish Rollins It will take
’
, .
us about three seconds to get it from you

”
forcibly Better fork over
. .
Rollins was trapped and he knew it .
With a very bad grace he handed his re ,
volver butt first to Carroll and Carroll

, , ,
exhibited it to the others It was a 38 . .
special with a broken butt plate .
“
Your revolver Scam mon ,
The burglar nodded .

SIX SECON DS OF DAR KN ESS 297
“
—
Yes I d know it in a million
’
.
“
Good ! And now gentlemen can t , ,
’
y o u see what happened ? Miss D uval s ’
b u llet lodged in the ceiling Mr Harrel , .
s o n n ever fired Badger Shot Hartigan

, ,
a n d Hartigan never had a gun Rollins .

,
—
i n a fit of fury o n e of the kind for which
h e is notorious and realizing that the crime
,
c ould be fastened on any one of thre e
o thers killed Hamilton

, .
“
Then when Rol lins was sent on the
c ase he planted his own revolver from ,
which one shot had been fired on Harti ,
gan A great case against the man don t

.
,
’
you see He kept the revolver Lefty

.
S cammo n had dropped It s really rather ’

.
simple after you ve got the facts before

’
ou — alth ough I admit freely Rollins

y , ,
that you had me completely fooled I .
started out with the idea that you had a

hand in it and I lost that idea It would
, .
have stayed lost perhaps if you had not

, ,
insisted so stubbornly that Hartigan was

the man who did it when I knew all the

time that H artigan s story must be tru e
’
.
”
And so gentlemen turning to the o thers
, , ,
“
I think that about ends our day s work ’
.
If you don t mind Rollins we ll slip the

’
, ,
’
”
bracelets on you .
Rollins held out his hands mildly and

the handcuffs were slipped over his w rists .
“
D o you wish to confess question ed
Carroll in his habitual kindly voice .
Rollins smiled with grim humour .
“
I ve been in this business too long to
’
”
confess to anything he ans w ered , .
“
Wh at you got against me you gotta
”
prove !
“
I guess we ll do that all right enough
’
Rollins .
—
An d now let s call it a day
’
.
T here are a few entries to be made o n the

blotter at headquarters .
Sergeant Larry O Brien turned on his ’
cot waked yawned and stretched himself

, , ,
l uxuriously His eye lighted on th e im

.
E M E RSO N H O U GH S N OVE LS '
h u m m u s m us - . m a m as -
w a nst.
T HE CO VERED W A GON
A n ep ic story of the Great W e st from which the fam
one p icture was made .
T HE WAY O F A MAN
A colorful rom anc e of the p ione e r West be fore the
T HE SA GEBRUS HER
A n Easte rn girl answe rs a m atrim onial ad and goe s . o ut
W est in the hills of Monts ns to find her ms te .
T HE WAY O UT
A romanc e of the feud districto f the Cumberland country .
T HE BRO KEN GA TE
A brok e n s ocial conve ntions and o f a wom an
’
story o f s
dete rm ination to p ut the p ast be hind he r .
T HE WA Y TO T HE W EST
D aniel Boone , D avy Crock ett and Kit Carson figure in
this story of th e op e ning o f th e W est .
H EART S ’
D ESI RE
T he story o f what hap pens when the railroad cam e to s
little settle m e nt in the far We st .
T HE PURC HASE PRI CE

A story o f Ke ntucky during the days afte r the Am e rican
R e volution .
GR O SSET 8s D UN LA P, PUBLI SH ERS NEW Y O R K ,

G
EORG DENS W
E W 0G ESTERN NOV
EIS
’
.
h u t s-m u t . “ sa t -m a m as
T H E BA RO N O F D I A M O N D T A I L
E dga r B arre tt, fre s h f ro m th e na was

so
was wro ng at th e ranch Th e tal e of -
ten e r foo t
.
b uck a ro oa a t th e ir own p lay wi ll s we ep you in to th

d
s al i en t wes ter n nov el .
T H E BO N D BO Y
Joe N
a n um b e r of
e wb ol t, b ou n d out b y force o f fa m il y con i ti ons to work for
is accuse d of m urd er an d ci rcu ms tances
d
t him
,
d
is m on th is s e al e ; h e cann ot, as a gen tl e m an, utter
in te re s t
d
.
.
th e wor s th at woul d el ear hi m A dram atic, rom anti c tal e of intense

.
C LA I M NUMB E R O N E
f b
d
to firs t ch oi ce of ri ch lan s on an I n ian res er va ti on i n y om ing It db d W .
m e ant a or tun e ; b ut efor e h e es ta lis h e his own ers h ip h e had s

h ard b attl e wi th croo k s an d poli ti cians .
T HE D UK E O F C H I MN EY B UTT E
W h en J
er r Lam b e rt,
“
th e D uk e ”
atte m pts to sa fe uard tb
g }
y b b
,
ca ttl e r an ch of Ph i l r ook fr om th i e vi n g n e ig h ors h i s work ?

eats
a p pa lli ng l ha n i ca p pe d e caus e o f dbrace Ke r , on e o f the chief
r G g
d
ta to ra, an s d ea d l y e n e m y of V a
’
s ta s A s tim ng tal e of rave de , b
b
.
u n - la an d a l o ve th a t s h i n e s a ov e all
g p y .
THE F LOC KMA STE R O F PO I S O N CR E E K
s h e e p lan ds .
T HE LA N D O F LA ST CH A NCE
J im
d Tim berl ak e an d Ca pt Da vi
S co tt w a
. i te d w i td
h res tless
d
th ous an s on th e Ok l ah om a li n e for th e s i gnal to as h aeross tho
d
b or er . H ow th e ci ty of V i ctor y arose ov erm gh t on th e p lains , how
d f d dd h “
h w
l l th i l i m i ns t t e s oo n r s o
g
e
p p
o
o
o d e
m
sa
e n
v a
a n
e
g y
d h a
e
d
e n
l
p ya
e
e p
e
o
r
li t
c
i
a
cs , m
s
a
a
k
g
e
a
s a s tro n g s tor y
e
o f
;
g ro w th
an d Am er ican ini tiah ve .
T RA I L S E N D
’
W was th e th e trail for thi rsty co b oy s wh o gave

e n d of
w
v en t to th e i r
not con ce rn
on
nt-u f
ee li ngs wi th o ut res trai n t C al vm Morgan was
d
wi th ts wi ck e nes s until S e th Cra oc k s m al evol ence
’
.
dd
d d
irecte i ts e lf agains t hi m
b
H e di d not e m e rge r om th e m ae ls trom
d . f
unti l h e h ad o li ter a te ev er y v es ti ge of l awle ss n es s , an d as s ured
f
h im s elf of th e s a e ty of a cer ta in ark -e y e gi rl d d .
As k ”C a p lets f re e lh l f
o G 6 D Popul¢r
. Copy rlglue d . Isa
PET E R B K Y N E S N O V E LS ’
.
n i c kna m -
es sa u c es “ . “ la m e n t ” .
T HE PRI D E O F PA O L MAR
Wh en two s trong m en clas h and the under-dog h as
n —
blood in his ve i s there s a tal e that xyne can tell l
’
"
the gi rl is also very m uch in e v
i dence .
KIND RED O F T HE D UST

Donald McKay son of H ector McKay, millionai re
,
”
her k ing , falls in lov e with N an of the S awd us t Pile , a
ch arm ing girl who has b
een os nacized by h er townafolk
'
L
T HE VA L EY O F T HE GIANTS
Th e fight of th e Cardigans , fath e r and son , to h old the
Valley of th e Giants agains t treach ery T he read er finis hes .
of h aving lived with b ig men an d wom en in a

b ig country .
CAPPY R I CKS
The story of old Cappy Ricks m d of Matt Peas b y , the
b oy h e tried to b reak b
ecaus e h e k new the acid te s t was
go o d for h is soul .
WEBST ER : MAN S MAN ’
b
I n a little Jim C row Rep u li c in Ce ntral America, a man
”
and a woman , h ai li n from th e State s , m et up wi th a
re voluti on and for a w le adventures and excite m e nt came
so thick and fas t that the ir love afiair h ad to wait for a lull
in th e gam e .
CAPTAIN SCRA GGS

Th is s ea y arn rthe adventures of th ree raps cal
e co un ts
—
lion s e a faring m e n a Captain S cr
- 3 , owner of th e green
b
vege ta le fre 1gh ter Magg I e , Gi ne y e m ate and McGufi b
ney th e e ngi nee r .
T HE LON G CHANCE
A sto fres h from th e h e art of th e West, of S an P ‘ s g ‘ l
e d d e se rt town , of H arley P H ennage , th e e si
-
b
a s un b
-
b
.
nb le r, th e e s t an d wors t m an of S an Pas qual and of

g ely Donna .
Gr os s e r D U N LA P , PUBLI S H ERS , Ne w You:

TAR! AN A ND T HE GOLDEN LION
A tale of th e Afri can wilde rness wfich appeals to all read e rs
TAR! AN T HE TERRI BLE

F urth er M g ad ve nture s of T arzan wh ile s e e kin g his wife
TAR! A N T HE UN TAM ED
v en ge ance for th e loss of h is wi fe and h om e .
JUNGLE TALES OF TAR! AN

R e cords th e m any wond e rful e xploits by
h is righ t to ap e kin gship .
A T T HE EART HS’
C O RE
in a world located insid e
T HE MUCKER
T h e s tory of Bil ly Byrne — as e xtraordinary a ch aracte r as th e
A PRIN CESS O F MARS

F orty-th r e e m illion m il es from th e earth a s ucce s s ion— of th c
wie rd s st and m os t as toundin g ad v enture s in fiction .
T HE GO D S O F MARS
Joh n Car te r s ad ve nture s on Mars , wh ere h e fights th e fe ro
’
e Godd ess of D eath

"
cious p lant m en , an d d efies I ss us . th .
T HE W ARLO RD OF M ARS
T HUVIA , M AI D OF MARS
Th e story ce nte rs around th e adve nture s of Carthoris , th e saw
of Joh n Carte r and Th a vis , d augh te r of a Martian E m pe ro r.
T HE '
C HESSMEN O F MARS
c re ature s with th e powe r d etach in g th eir h e ads from th eir
of
b od ie s and re pl acin g th em at wil l .
G R O SS E T 8c D UN A P, L Puau su m , NEW Y O RK
JA M ES O L I V E R C U R W O O D S
’
STO RI ES O F AD VEN TURE

h u m m u s -
n an “ M fu l rss s st t b s d n s l st
'
THE COUNTRY BEYO ND
L
THE F AMING FO REST
THE VALLEY OF SILENT MEN

THE RIVER S END
'
THE GOLDEN SNARE
NOMA DS OF THE NORT H
KA! A N
BAREE SON OF KA! AN

.
THE COURAGE OF CAPTAIN PLUM
THE DANGER TRAIL
THE HUNTED W O MA N
THE F LOW ER OF THE NO RT H
THE GRI! ! LY KING
ISO BEL
THE W OLF HUNTERS
THE GOLD HUNTERS
THE COURAGE OF MARGE O BOONE

'
BAC K TO GO D S COUNTRY
'
Ask for Complete f ree lis t of G . (9 D Popular Copy d gfil e d F iction

.
GRO SS E T D UN LA P, Puams n m s, N EW Y O RK
F LO R E N C E L B A R C L A Y S .
’
N O V E LS
i n h u m an e n - us . u n i -
s su l fi d e “ .
T HE W H IT E LAD I ES OF WO RCES TER
tollow .
T HE UPAS TREE
ch arm . I t deals with a suc ce ss ful
TH RO UGH T HE PO STERN GATE
bf
e or e the
T HE RO SARY
Th e sto of a artis t who is re nted to love b ea
b
a ove all e in S
e world , b ut who , w en b lind e d th ro g
an acci de nt, gai ns life s greates t h app iness
’
A
b
.
of th e great as s i on of two real op le s up er ly

p
b ve its s acn fices and its es ce e g dih
rew ard .
TH E M ISTRESS O F S HENSTONE
Tfi I e y
e myI
ov oun ng e l By rece n ay widowed
by the
d th f h b
,
ea o a whus an o nev er und e rs tood h e r , m eets a fine ,

cle an yo chap who is ignorant of h er titl e and th ey fall
d eep ly in e with e ach other Wh en h e learns h er
.
identi ty a s ituation of s ingular power is deve lop ed .
T HE BR O K EN H AL O
wh ite lady , many years older than hims elf, to

pas s ionate ly d evoted .
T HE FO O W ING O F T HE STAR
LL
com e to love each oth e r and are reunited after exp eri ences
that soften and p urify .
ET H E L M . D E LL S
’
N O V E LS
l u k hs l atsrm r l ss l s m ss l‘ . M t C M '
as o u
C H ARLES REX
T he struggle against a hidde n se c ret and the love of a
s trong m an and a courage ous woman .
T HE T O P O F T HE W O RLD
T e lls o f th e which leads at las t to the
p ath top of t eh
”
world, which it is gi ve n to few se ek e rs to find .
T HE LAM P IN T HE D ES ER T
T e lls o f th e lam p o f love th at co ntinues to shine through
all sorts o f tri bulations to final happ ine ss .
GR EATH EART
T he s to ry o f a cripp e l whose de form e d body c onceals
a b
no le s oul .
T HE H UN DRED TH C HAN CE
A he ro who work e d to win e ve n whe n there was only
a hun dre dth c hanc e .
”
bad m an
’
T he sto ry of a s soul re vealed by a
faith
’
wo m an 8 .
T HE TI DAL W AVE
Tl a e s of lo ve and o f wom e n wh o learne d to know the
true fro m the fal s e .
T HE SA FETY CUR TAIN

A ve ry vivid love story o f India T he volum e
. als o
c ontai ns four o th e r long stories of e qual inte re st .
GROSSET D U
N LA P, P U BLI SH ERS, N EW You:
ELEA N O R H PO RT ER S N O V E LS
’
T he tale o f a loveable boy and the p lace he com es m

fill in th e he arts o f th e gru ff farm e r folk to whose cars In
is le ft
.
T HE RO AD TO UND ERSTAND IN G
A com p e lling ro m an ce o f love an d m arriage .
Stanley Fulto n , w e
a a lthy a c h e lor, tb
o te st th e disposi
tio ns o f h is re latives , s e nds th e m e ac h a c heck fo r
000, and the n as p lain John S m ith com es am on g the m to
watch the re sult o f h is exp erim e nt .
SIX STAR RANC H

A who le so m e story o f a c lub o f s ix girls and th e ir sum
m e r o n Six Star Ranch .
DAWN
T he story of blind boy whos e c ourage le ads him
a
through the gulf o f de sp ai r into a final victo ry gaine d o,
de dicating his life to th e s e rvic e of lin d soldie rs b .
AC RO SS T HE Y EARS
Short storie s o f our own kind and o f our own p e op le
Contains so m e o f the b e st writing Mrs Porte r has done
.
T HE TANGLED THR EADS

I n th e s e storie s w e fin d the conc e ntrated ch arm an !
te nde rne ss o f all h e r oth e r ook s b .
T HE T IE THAT BIN D S
l nte ns e ly hum an storie s told with Mrs Porte r s wo n .
’
derfui tale nt for warm an d vivi d characte r drawing .
GROSS ET D U N LA P , P U B LI S H ERS , NEW You

GRA C E LI V I N GST O N H I LL
h h fl m fl fl “ M b d u
BE ST MAN, T HE
CLOUDY JE WE L
DA WN o r T HE MO RNI NG
E NCHA NT E D BAR N, T HE
EX I T B ETT Y
GI R L F R OM MO NT A NA . T HE
LO, MI CHA E L I
MA N OF T HE D E S E RT . T HE
MA R CIA SCHUYLE R
MI RA N D A
MYST E RY OF MA R Y . T HE
O BSE S S ION O F V I CT OR I A GRA CE N,
PHOE B E DE AN E
R E D S I GNA L. T HE
SE A R C
H, T HE
T RY ST , T HE
VO I CE I N T HE WI LD ER NES S , A
WIT NE SS , T HE
M -
far Ca npld e f ree lisq G 6 D Popular
. .
W Fm
GROSSET D UN P
LA ,

Lingua

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SIX SECO N D S O F

relighted his oﬁe ns i v e l y fragrant pipe ,

an d s wung his swivel chair around idly .

D esk Sergean t Larry O Brien grinned

cheerfull y through the ha z e of rancid

these clear and aisy nights which beget ac

a fther thi nki n by the quietude which has

g ripp e d us hereabouts these past sivi n

The other answered sagely :

They ve been asking so many question s

and taking so many notes that I m afraid ’

to say me name s Farris They re wise ’

lot There s S tinson of the N em f him

ye d s htil l be able to read In God We

Trust he wanted to know was I in on the

bhye I merely raym ark e d that I m no

special pals with Barret Rollins an that ,

Police Commissioner Clement Hall ap

Farris lowered his voice discreetly and

to get him ever since Hall became inter

ways start in on the police when they de

bins he don t be afther lovin Comm is

sion e r Hall nor Mister E dward J Hamil .

ton anny more than they re lovin him ; ’ ’

which is considerable less than none at all .

An he s a good de tictiv e too ; he s keen

an he s got a good head on a pair of hefty

sho ulders But A! me bhye O i m think

in ! i d rather be a disk sergeant right thi s

mi nute than Mister Barret Rollins chief ,

The newcomer swung across to the desk

and nodded a curt greeting .

So so chief How s the bhye ? ’

anywhere except a sti ff was drug out av

N othing nothing at all I ll be going

into the ofﬁce yonder for a smoke and a bit

O B rie n s eyes followed the man with

interest as he walked across the room to

strength and physical ability in every well

an impress ionof lack of height to which a

his face that of the average plain clothes

man ; the eyes were a bit too close set per ,

haps but they were level eye s eyes

alert and ruthless .

H e had worked himself to his present

by dint of sheer ability A little political

pull may have helped here and there but ,

that as sistance had been inconsiderable .

He was an efﬁcient man greatest testi ,

mony to which was given by the unani

the way numbered legion He was a

martin et ; unbending inexorable heart

less His third degree was a classic

Larry O B rie n chuckled softly as he

chewed the stub of a dilapidated cigar .

reformer like E dward Hamilton Ham il .

ton s said he s ready to turn th ings loos e

an tear em up an he never makes a state