How long have you been lying here?"
"I don't know, sir," his voice strengthening. "I must have been hit, the
way my head aches. The first thing I knew after I went into that room
with you, I was lyin' here in the dark. I couldn't move or speak, sir,
an' it was so black, I kind of got it into my head maybe I was dead and
buried. If it hadn't been for my hearing things--voices talking, and all
that--I guess I would have gone clear batty. Maybe I didn't get
everything straight, sir, but one o' them fellows was Hobart, wasn't he?"
"Yes; we walked right into his trap. The fellow who came over to the
table and talked to us was Jim Hobart. He knew me at first sight it
seems, and easily guessed what we were there for."
"And was Miss Coolidge here too, sir?"
"Yes, she was; I had a talk with her that has mixed me all up, Sexton.
She seems to be hand in glove with these fellows. But how did you suspect
she was here?"
"I heard her voice, sir; up there somewhere, sir, soon after I come to
my senses. She and some man went along outside. Sounded like he was
makin' her go with him. I couldn't get much of what was said, but he
sure talked awful rough, an' she seemed to be pleadin' with him. They
wasn't there but just a minute, an' then, a little later, I heard an
automobile start up."
"You have no idea how long ago this was?"
"No, I ain't, sir. I been lyin' here about half dead, I guess, an' I
don't seem to have known anything after that, until those fellows come
down here with the lantern.
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