then the train started.
"This is a most singular case, Harry," the old detective exclaimed. "We may be on a wild-goose chase, or we may be on the eve of exposing a revolting crime. Everything up to the present moment leads me to believe in the latter idea. We can only verify our suspicion by opening that big box and looking at the contents. This I intend to do."
"Our safest course will be to capture Solomon Gloom first, and then confront him with the contents of the box," replied Harry. "If we find a corpse there, we may learn whose it is and why the man was killed."
"Very true," assented Old King Brady, with a nod, as he pushed his white hair back from his massive brow. "And if we don't find a corpse in the box we'll have the satisfaction of arresting Gloom for shooting you."
"The man lied outrageously to you, in order to fool you," said Harry. "So there isn't much reliance to be placed on anything he said, till we prove it."
"Let's see his business card," said the old detective, "now that I've got a light."
He drew the pasteboard from his pocket and glanced at it.
To his surprise he found that it really was the business card of one Solomon Gloom, undertaker, of Seventh avenue.
"This seems to be all right," he remarked.
"How about the permit from the Health Department?"
Old King Brady drew the paper from his pocket and glanced at it keenly.
Once more he was surprised to discover that it was a genuine printed form stating that Mr. Gloom was permitted to remove the corpse of Albert Reid from the Thirty-sixth street house to the Fresh Pond Crematory. The permit added that the broker had died of small-pox.
"We can't say he lied about this, either," commented the old detective.
"But how about the gory dagger you said you found in the empty house?"
"Here it is. And it's a very unique weapon."
Old King Brady held up the knife.
It had a double-edged blade, eight inches long, as thin as paper, and was embossed with the initials P. V., in frosted letters.
"What an ugly-looking weapon!" Harry commented, with a shudder.
"It's an oddity," replied the old detective. "But it isn't a certainty that these are the initials of the person who last used it."
"You'd better keep those three things," advised Harry, thoughtfully. "They may come in handy if this case amounts to anything."
"If they serve us no better purpose, we can show them to our chief when we get back to New York, so he will have evidence of what we are doing," said Old King Brady, with a faint smile.
"He expected a report from us to-night, on the case he put us on, but he won't get it," said Harry, grimly.
The boy referred to some work they had been doing before they stumbled upon the Thirty-sixth street affair.
Information had reached the Central Office that Oliver Dalton, a Broad street broker, suspected his nephew, Ronald Mason, of robbing his mail.
The detectives had gone to the broker's house in West Thirty-eighth street to get the particulars privately. But the man's daughter, Lizzie, told them her father had not yet come home. They waited for him till nearly eight o'clock, and as Mr. Dalton did not appear, they were going back to headquarters when they stumbled upon the suspicious case already recorded here.
Old King Brady smiled at Harry's remark.
"There's no great hurry about that case," he remarked.
"Well," said the boy, "are you ready to go through the cars on a hunt for Solomon Gloom? We must make sure of our man before he has a chance to alight at a way station and elude us."
Old King Brady bent nearer to Harry, to reply, when suddenly a cloth was thrown over their heads by a man who sat behind them.
The cloth was saturated with chloroform.
While the detectives were struggling to extricate their heads, they inhaled the deadly fumes and were overcome by the drug.
Not until they were fast asleep did the man remove the cloth.
No one had seen the deed, as they occupied the last seats in the aisle and not an undue noise had arisen to attract attention.
Seeing the detectives stupid from the drug, a low chuckle escaped the man, and he rose to his feet and muttered:
"Sleep, you dogs! Tracked me, eh? Well, it won't do you any good. You'll be snoring long after we reach Georgia. And when you do arouse yourselves, you'll find the box gone from this train. This must be a mighty good disguise, if you failed to recognize Solomon Gloom in it – really, a very clever disguise."
And he chuckled again, glanced at the gray suit and bicycle cap he wore, felt of the false beard covering his face and walked into one of the forward cars where he had a chance to remain until the opportunity came for him to alight at his destination.
The lightning express train went thundering along over the rails and the Bradys slept on until mid-day.
When they aroused themselves, the cars had left Charleston.
Their fury knew no bounds, and Old King Brady said, bitterly:
"It must have been Gloom who did that."
"If it were, he was cleverly disguised and must have been the fellow who sat behind us apparently reading a newspaper," replied Harry.
"Perhaps he's on the train yet."
"If he is, we'll find him."
"All I want is to get my hands on the rascal!"
"Are you ready to search for him?"
"Come ahead," replied Old King Brady, rising to his feet.
They passed slowly through the car, carefully studying each passenger.
There were two more passenger coaches, a smoking car and a baggage car ahead, and the detectives searched them thoroughly for the undertaker.
But to their disgust he was not found.
They paused on the platform of the baggage car and Harry exclaimed:
"He must have checked the box through on a ticket he bought for Savannah, and then hid somewhere on this train."
"Which shows what a foxy gentleman we have to contend with," muttered Old King Brady, grimly. "He feared pursuit."
"No doubt of it."
"Here comes the conductor. We can explain matters to him and open the box."
They had no trouble to persuade the conductor of the importance of seeing what the box contained, and they all had a talk with the baggage master.
He held them off until nightfall.
As the Bradys promised to have him absolved from blame, he finally gave his permission to them to open the box.
Harry
