Chapter
27
MR. REEDER sidled into the room apologetically, closing the door behind him.
"All alone, Mr. Legge?" he asked. "I thought you had company?"
"I had some friends, but they've gone."
"Your son gone, too?" Reeder stared helplessly from one corner of the room to the other. "Dear me, this is a disappointment, a great disappointment."
Emanuel was thinking quickly. In all probability the shabby detective had been watching the front of the house, and would know that they had not left that way. He took a bold step.
"They left a quarter of an hour ago. Peter and Johnny went down the fire-escape—my boy's car was in the yard. We never like to have a car in front of the club premises; people talk so much. And after the publicity we've had—"
Mr. Reeder checked him with a mild murmur of
