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114
UNSEEN HANDS

market gone crazy," the detective commented. "He has drawn out two or three hundred at a clip and sometimes put back double the amount on the following day; but he's drawn out more than he has deposited in the long run. According to this, he has less than seven hundred left now."

Taylor grinned.

"Give a look at those papers and you will find the explanation for that, sir. The old bird played the races. The letters are all innocent enough. They are from that sister of his on Staten Island; and there isn't another thing in his room except clothes and a sporting magazine or two."

Odell glanced over a letter, noted that the rest were all in the same writing, and handed them back together with the bank-book and racing-charts.

"Put them back where you found them, Taylor; there's a chance that he will turn up yet of his own accord. Now tell me what you found in the other rooms."

"Nothing in Jane's room or the cook's that would interest you; and there was no grate or fireplace in any of the servants' rooms. Jane has a lot of cheap showy clothes and a stack of letters from a bunch of fellows, but they are all innocent enough. Marcelle has just a few letters written in a foreign language—French, I think—some books the same, and a rosary. She has mighty few clothes; but her room is the cleanest of the lot, and her bank-book shows four thousand dollars, all small deposits at a time and none drawn out. She's a thrifty soul, that Marcelle! I don't quite get this Gerda, though; the lady's maid."

"Why?"

"Well, her trunk and bag are cheap and unmarked but