Tabor, on his makeshift bed across the library door, planned to be quietly alert to any sound.
So the moon rose, then sailed behind a cloud, and later drew heavier storm clouds about itself and slipped down its way to rest also, and the world was very dark.
Then when the night was at its darkest, a dim figure stole across into the deepest shrubbery at the side of the Thurston house and disappeared near a little-used window of the old library. But the family slept on, and not even Tabor with all his wakefulness heard a sound.
In the morning, however, when Tabor opened the shutters and dusted the room, he found the other drawers in the master's big desk had been thoroughly searched, the contents stirred up and everything left in heaps!
He studied the whole situation thoroughly and then went to the kitchen telephone and called up the police station. It was early and no one upstairs was stirring yet. This was something that must be settled without the young lady's knowledge, if possible. He had promised his beloved master that he would guard Miss Eden as his own.
So Mike and Tabor went into the library and examined everything very carefully and very silently. Then all the papers were put back, the drawers locked, and they went around searching for the place where the entrance to the house had been made. They found it soon enough in the long window on the side patio that opened into the library. It was always kept locked. Ellery must have been the intruder and had probably unfastened the window as he stood by it during the last brief altercation before he left.
A few questions Mike asked of Tabor, and then he took himself away to start a search for Ellery Fane.
Chapter 2
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Quite early the next morning Lavira Fane alighted from a Western plane, took a taxi from the airport to the railroad station, and after a refreshing cup of coffee and a pile of well-buttered toast with jam, boarded the train for Glencarroll, the city suburb where the Thurstons resided.
Finding no chauffeur to meet her, no taxi at that early hour in the morning, and not even a station agent whom she might blame, she walked with angry, disapproving strides up to the house, reflecting on her hard lot. She did not spend much thought on her lazy son for not attending her, for well she knew his ways. He had probably been up late the night before and was now sleeping the sleep of the shiftless. That was the way she had brought him up. Why should she blame him?
So she blamed other people for whatever he had not done, and assuming that Ellery had told Eden that she was coming, she blamed Eden for not having sent her chauffeur to meet all trains until she arrived. Hence she stalked along growing more and more irate as she drew nearer to the house, which seemed to have moved to a far greater distance from the station than she remembered.
In due time, however, angry and tired and thinking incessantly of the fine breakfast she anticipated that would be served her soon after her arrival, she marched up the stately stone steps and rang the bell.
This was while Tabor was conversing with the policeman, and Janet had not yet come downstairs.
Tabor heard the bell and frowned, glanced at his watch, and frowned again. The policeman gave him a quick glance and said he had better leave.
"Wait!" said Tabor. "I don't know who that would be unless it's that pest of a mother of his. He said she was coming this morning."
"Mmmmm!" said the policeman in an undertone. "You go ahead. I'll stick around."
So Tabor went reluctantly to the door, and silently Janet began to descend the upper stairs.
Thus reinforced, Tabor opened the front door.
"Well! So you did decide to come to the door at last, did you?" blatted the undesired guest. "I shall certainly report this to the family. Are you the same servant that was here the last time I visited?"
Tabor met this tirade with stern countenance.
"Whom did you wish to see, madam?" he asked, in his most butlerish tone. "What is your