Page:Episodes-before-thirty.djvu/202

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Episodes before Thirty

telephoned to headquarters to warn Detective Lawler to be in readiness. Lawler was out on a "big story" elsewhere, but another man would come up with the warrant the moment I sent word. I had, however, no occasion to telephone again that night, nor even the next night, though we must evidently have been within an ace of catching him. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack, or for a rabbit in a warren. The neighbourhood, this joint in particular, was alive with similar characters; all the women wore furs; all the men were tall, many of them had "glass-eyes," the majority seemed English with "their trousers turned up." We sat for hours in one den after another, but we caught no further indication of the trail. It had vanished into thin air. And after these two exciting and exhausting nights, the old doctor collapsed; he could do no more; he told me he felt unequal to the strain and could not accompany me even one more time. The old man was done.

The day after the search stopped temporarily, Kay arrived in the city, to my great delight. It was a keen relief to have him back. The tour had been a failure, and the company had become stranded in Port Hope, Ontario. Salaries were never paid; he had received hotel board, railway ticket, laundry, but rarely any cash. What luggage he possessed was in the Port Hope hotel, held in lieu of payment. It remained there.

We talked things over, and the news about Boyde, heard now for the first time in detail, shocked him. There was no doubt or hesitation in Kay's mind. "Of course you must arrest him; we'll go out to-night and look." We did so, but with no result. Kay had the remains of a borrowed $10, we dined at Krisch's; he had cigarettes, too.... We passed a happy evening, coming home early from the chase. Like myself, he had no overcoat, but the money did not reach to getting it from Ikey where Boyde had pawned it. We sat indoors, and talked.... Only a short three months before we had sat talking round a camp-fire on our island. It seemed incredible. We

discussed my plan for settling in the woods, to which he

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