“I’ll try,” came the pathetic voice; “I will—­but, oh, come soon!”

Gard excused himself to everyone, pleading the necessity of rest, and once alone in his room, set about ripping and smashing the incriminating evidence, until nothing but a few loose stones and crumpled bits of gold remained.  He broke the monogrammed case of the watch from its fastening and crushed its face.  Now to contrive to scatter the fragments would be a simple matter.  He secreted them in an inner pocket, and his pressing desire of their destruction satisfied, he telephoned to Langley to join him in his private room at a hurried luncheon.  Next he sent for the afternoon papers.  Not a line as yet, however; and Langley and Denning having evidently decided it to be unwise to deflect his thoughts from matters in hand, did not mention Mahr.  Even when he brought up the name himself with a casual mention of the possibility of acquiring the Heim Vandyke, there was nothing said to give him an opportunity to speak and he was breathless for details, to learn if his ruse had succeeded.  At last he called Brencherly, both Denning and Langley endeavoring to divert him from his intention.

“Yes, yes,” snapped Gard; “what’s the news?”

His companions exchanged dubious glances.

“Nothing learned yet about the matter, sir, on which you engaged me, nothing at all.  But—­there’s something else—­I think you ought to know—­Victor Mahr is dead!”

“Dead!  How?  When?” Gard feigned surprise.

“Murdered last night,” came the reply.  “Found this morning.  Our man watching the house learned it as soon as anyone did.  A case of robbery, they say—­but the coroner’s verdict hasn’t been given yet.  He was hit in the head with a pistol—­but—­I think, sir, they’ll want you; you saw him last night, they say—­after you left me.  Have you any instructions to give me, sir?”

Gard reflected.  “I don’t know,” he wavered.  “Hold all the good men in your service you can for me—­and remember what I told you.”  He turned to the two men.  “Mahr’s dead—­murdered!” he blurted out, as if startled by the news.

They nodded.  “Yes, we knew.  But,” Denning added, “we didn’t want to upset you any further.  It came out on the ticker at eleven.  How are you feeling?” he asked with friendly solicitude.  “I wish you’d eat something—­you’ve not touched anything but coffee for nearly twenty-four hours.”

“I can’t,” said Gard grimly.  “Let’s go to the Capitol and get it over with.  Have you ’phoned Senator Ryan?  I’m all right,” he assured them, as he caught sight of Langley’s dubious expression.  “I want to get through here as quickly as possible and get back.  I suppose you realize that I’ll be wanted in the city in more ways than one.  I was the last person, except the murderer, to see Mahr.  Come on.”

As they came from the Capitol at the close of their conference, Langley and Denning fell behind for a moment.