Doc Savage - Terror and the Lonely Widow Part 12

"But to impersonate a federal agent. How-"

"They had caught Chapman," Doc said. "Burrel took Chapman's credentials-which, incidentally, Chapman was a fool for carrying on him."

Defensively, Miss Gilroy said, "Mr. Chapman was head of an agency, rather than an operative. To arrange for cooperation with the city police, he had to have credentials. That's why he carried them."

Doc nodded agreeably. "At least he had them on him when they got him. So Chapman used them-his idea being to find out how much we knew about the affair. He succeeded, too. He learned we didn't know much of anything."

Monk grinned, said, "But we must have scared him. Or he wouldn't have rigged that burning house thing to make us think the whole gang was dead-everybody who knew where the bomb was, dead."

Mr. Moore licked his lips. "Say, what tipped you off that was a phony?" he asked.

"The gasoline in the house," Doc said readily. "There was no logical reason for that much gasoline in the house. Too, the way the thing was staged was phony ... You had the genuine Chapman in the house all the time, didn't you? You shot him after you started the fire, then threw his body out of the window."

"I never shot him!" Mr. Moore said. He was terrified.

"How did you get out of the burning house?"

"The porch, then dropped to the ground."

Monk said, "That's the way we had it figured."

Miss Gilroy s.h.i.+vered. "They pa.s.sed me in a car as I was going for the police. They-they seized me.

They drugged me, and took me all the way to San Francisco ... I don't know how they got me on the plane."

"We just told them she was sick," said Mr. Moore.

Renny frowned. "I don't see why you took her along. That was a lot of trouble."

"Believe it or not," said Mr. Moore, "we didn't have no chance to b.u.mp her off and dispose of her body.

Ain't that a good reason?"

Monk said he thought it was an excellent reason. He said that he hoped he would think of it when Mr.

Moore was being hanged by the neck until dead.Monk was quite cheerful now.

THE END.