But with the first words I heard, the office-boy
was forgotten, and my own nerves received a shock
as I listened to the message. It was from the
Detective Bureau with which I was connected, and
the superintendent himself was directing me to go
at once to West Sedgwick, where a terrible crime
had just been discovered.
"Killed!" I exclaimed; "Joseph Crawford?"

" Yes ; murdered in his home in West Sedgwick.
The coroner telephoned to send a detective at once
and we want you to go."



16 THE GOLD BAG

" Of course I '11 go. Do you know any more
details ?'*

" No ; only that he was shot during the night
and the body found this morning. Mr. Crawford
was a big man, you know. Go right off, Mr.
Burroughs; we want you to lose no time."

Yes ; I knew Joseph Crawford by name, though
not personally, and I knew he was a big man in
the business world, and his sudden death would
mean excitement in Wall Street matters. Of his
home, or home-life, I knew nothing.
" 1 11 go right off," I assured the Chief, and
turned away from the telephone to find Donovan,
the office-boy, already looking up trains in a time-
table.
" Good boy, Don," said I approvingly ; " what's
the next train to West Sedgwick, and how long
does it take to get there? "

"You kin s'lect the ten-twenty, Mr. Burruz,
if you whirl over in a taxi an' shoot the tunnel,"
said Donovan, who was rather a graphic conversa-
tionalist. " That'll spill you out at West Sedgwick
'bout quarter of 'leven. Was he moidered, Mr.
