"
I shrugged. The accusation was so impossible that my confidence
returned.
"Mr. Haggerty, you are making a stupid mistake. You are losing time,
besides. I am not the man for whom you are hunting. My name is
Richard Comstalk."
"One name or another, it does not matter."
"Plenty of gall," murmured one of the minions of the law, whom I
afterward learned was the chief of the village police.
"The card by which you gained admittance here," demanded the great
Haggerty truculently.
I surrendered it. A crowd had by this time collected curiously about
us. I could see the musicians on the stage peering over the plants.
"The thief you are looking for has gone," said I. "He escaped by the
coal-window." By this statement, my feet sank deeper still.
"What did I tell you?" cried Haggerty, turning to his men. "They had
an accomplice hidden in the cellars."
"I beg to inform you that you are making a mistake that will presently
cost you dear,"--thinking of the political pull my uncle had in New
York. "I am the nephew of Daniel Witherspoon."
"Worse and worse!" said the chief of police.
"We shall discuss the mistake later and at length. Of course you can
easily explain how you came to impose upon these people,"--ironically.
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