13
TRASK surprised me by sharing Beatrice's alarm over the non-appearance of Linda. He was eager for the details and reproached me for not asking Beatrice for a description of the chauffeur.
"A good description might have made me quite certain on one point," he stated. "The use of a cipher and the ruse of sending the violets addressed to Miss Beatrice made me suspect that Keith must be working with confederates. And now the employment of an automobile makes matters look still worse. You've noticed how much the most enterprising crooks are using automobiles lately, haven't you? This suggests even more strongly that, instead of having merely Keith to deal with, we may perhaps have to combat one or more of the shrewdest criminals in New York, one of those first to utilize each new invention
