Trent's Last Case

with strangers, and Trent's quick remark plainly disconcerted him a little. 'You are Mr. Trent, I expect,' he went on. 'Mrs. Manderson was telling me a while ago. Captain, good-morning.' M

rhaps,' he said. 'No, sir; I heard a word or two

was parted in the middle. His lips, usually occupied with a cigar, in its absence were always half open with a curious expression as of permanent ea

ched him for some time, and at length offered him the post of private secretary. Mr. Bunner was a pattern business man, trustworthy, long-headed, methodical, and accurate. Manderson could ha

having it explained to me,' said Trent pleasantly, 'that my discovery of a pistol that might have shot Manderson does

's loaded, by the way. Now this Little Arthur-Marlowe bought it just before we came over this year to please the old man. Manderson said it was ridiculous for a man to be without a pistol in the twentieth century. So he went out and bought what they offered him, I guess-never consulted me. Not but what it's a good gun,' Mr. Bunner conceded, squinting along the sights. 'Marlowe was poor with it at first, but I've coached him some in the last month or so, and he's practised u

rent. 'I have an appointmen

cap., are you coming my way too? No? Then come along, Mr. Trent, and help me get out the car. The ch

rs and through the house to the garage at the back. It stood at a little dist

was accepted, and for the first time lit his own. Then he seated himself on the footbo

smart man, and I like dealing with smart men. I don't know if I have that detective sized up right, but he strikes me as a mutt. I would answer any

tell you, Murch is anything but what you think. He is one of the shrewdest officers in Europe. He is not very quick with his mind, but he is

. I will tell you one reason why. I believe the old man knew there was something com

ce on the footboard and seated himself. 'This sou

idered him the coolest and hardest head in business. That man's calm was just deadly-I never saw anything to beat it. And I knew Manderson as nobody else did. I was with him in the work he really lived for. I

riends?' inte

omething lying heavy on his mind. But it wasn't until a few weeks back that his self-restraint began to go; and let me tell you this, Mr. Trent'-the American laid his bony claw on the other's knee-'I'm the only man that knows it. With every one else he would be just morose and dull; but when he was alone with me in his office, or anywhere where we would be working together, if the least little thing went wrong, by George! he would fly off the handle to beat the Dutch. In this library here I have seen him open a letter with something that didn't just suit him in it, and he would rip around and carry on like an Indian, saying he wished he had the man that wrote it here, he wo

et anxiety, a fear that somebody ha

erican

wn from overstrain, say. That is the first thought that your account suggests to me. Besides, it is what is alwa

nywhere near Manderson's size: did you ever hear of any one of them losing his senses? They don't do it-believe me. I know they say every man has his loco point,' Mr. Bunner added reflectively, 'b

at was Ma

naments. He wouldn't have anybody do little things for him; he hated to have servants tag around after him unless he wanted them. And although Manderson was as careful about his clothes as any man I ever kne

that,' Trent remarked. 'W

the Manderson habit of mind, I guess; a sort

ht, and he was taking no risks. Then again in business he was always convinced that somebody else was after his bone-which was true enough a good deal of the time; but not all the time. The consequence of that was that the old man was the most cautious and secret worker in the world of

the domestic difficulty in his chief's household, and decided to

t was going to upset Sig Manderson that way? No, sir! He was a s

shrewdness and intensity he saw a massive innocence. Mr. Bunner really believed a s

e between them, anyh

at first,' said Mr. Bunner in a lower voice, leaning forward, 'that the old man was disappointed and vexed because he had expected a child; but Marlowe told me that the

stine!' he said; and his thought was,

because he talks French like a native, and she would always be holding him up for a gossip. French servants are quite unlike English that way. And servant or

aid. 'You believe that Manderson was going in terror of his life

not lived in the States. To take the Pennsylvania coal hold-up alone, there were thirty thousand men, with women and children to keep, who would have jumped at the chance of drilling a hole through the man who fixed it so that they must starve or give in to his terms. Thirty thousand of the toughest aliens in the country, Mr. Trent. There's a type of desperado you find in that kind of push who has been known to lay for a man for years, and kill him when he had forgotten what he did. They have been known to dynamite a man in Idaho who had done them dirt in New Jersey ten

ational, and it's only a question of whether it fits all the facts. I mustn't give away what I'm doing for my newspaper, Mr. Bunner, but I will say this: I have already satisfied myself that this was a premedi

'Ten a.m. in little old New York. You don't know Wall Street, Mr. Trent. Let's you and