"Bennet told me that Quinlan was a privileged character; and he had a grandson Robert—who must be the Robert that father means, Mr. Loutrelle."
"Yes."
"Robert Quinlan was killed last summer. The old man had been wrapped up in him and afterwards he went sort of queer, and he disappeared late in December. I wrote you, I think, that the landlady could tell me nothing more about him; but day before yesterday, when I went to 57th Street to see if, by any chance, any one else might know more, the landlady told me that a Mrs. Monahan, who lives over by Garfield Park, had been asking about him recently. So I went to the West Side and found that Mrs. Monahan was a woman about forty-five years old who was the sister of the wife of Quinlan's son. She told me that Quinlan, whose wife died many years ago, had one son also named James; and this James Quinlan and his wife—Mrs. Monahan's sister—both were lost in the Iroquois Theatre fire here in Chicago in 1903. They left the boy, Bob, she called him. She had Bob part of the time; then the old man wanted him, so Bob lived with him till he went to war. Bob was shot down in flames; he was burned in the air. She said that fact, following the death of Bob's father and mother, shook the old man's mind. She hadn't seen much of him since Bob's death because the sight of any one connected with Bob excited him too much; but she'd worried about him a lot, particularly after she'd found out just recently that he'd left his boarding place and gone without giving an address. She wanted to know what I know about him."
"What did you tell her?" Barney asked when Ethel hesitated.
