"Yes, master, I will do as you instructed me. But I wish to warn you against a new tack. A man has taken them to Bert Reese, the clairvoyant, he on your guard, for this man is determined—even as much as you and I are."
There was an apparently curt command, for Varney's fare registered a new shade of fear as he added: "Yes, master, your command" are life and death—it shall be done. As he hung up the receiver, he ran noiselessly to the library doors to examine the tapestries and all other possible hiding places that red walls be the easiest. I will leave the light lit for future reference."
He unscrewed the ordinary incandescent bulb from the wardrobe socket. From an inside pocket of his coat, he drew forth a peculiarly shaped rod globe which he substituted for the other. Then, turning on the current, he closed the door and left the room with the same feline caution with which he had entered.
As he peered out of the window of the hall, he held the figure of Willis hurrying up the driveway. Varney managed to reach the library just in time to assume a nonchalant attitude of absorption in the magazine when the butler quietly let himself in the front doorway.
"Well, Willis, you made a very quick trip. I thought the cigar shop was about two blocks away?"
"Yes, sir," answered Willis, with a cough of deprecation. 