"Sure!" said he surprisedly, "it's Crawford."
Ashton-Kirk rejoined his friend; and as they made their way to the
waiting automobile, the latter said;
"That is a step ahead of me, Kirk, I think. Where did you get a
portrait of this man Crawford?"
By way of an answer the investigator held up the photograph once more.
Pendleton gave a gasp of amazement.
"Allan Morris," said he. "_Allan Morris, by George!_"
CHAPTER XIV
MISS VALE UNEXPECTEDLY APPEARS
Edouard, Ashton-Kirk's cook, was astonished and somewhat grieved that
day to receive orders that dinner was to be served an hour earlier
than usual. And Stumph, grave and immobile, was betrayed into an
expression of astonishment when his master and guest sat down to the
same dinner in their work-a-day attire.
And at best Edouard's delicate art that day received but scant
attention. Stumph could hardly conceive of a more important thing than
the proper and gentlemanly eating of one's dinner. Nevertheless other
things engaged the attention of the two young men; they talked
earnestly and in incomprehensible terms; mysterious allusions were
sprinkled thickly through it all.
"I do not think," Stumph told the mortified Edouard in the kitchen,
"that Mr.
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