The Glass Key Read Free

spied a man coming up the other side of the street. He immediately slackened his pace and made himself walk erect. The man entered a house before he came opposite Ned Beaumont.
    By the time Ned Beaumont reached the Club he had stopped breathing through his mouth. His lips were still somewhat faded. He looked at the empty automobile without pausing, climbed the Club's steps between the two lanterns, and went indoors.
    Harry Sloss and another man were crossing the foyer from the cloakroom. They halted and said together: "Hello, Ned." Sloss added: "I hear you had Peggy O'Toole today."
    "Yes."
    "For much?"
    "Thirty-two hundred."
    Sloss ran his tongue over his lower lip. "That's nice. You ought to be set for a game tonight."
    "Later, maybe. Paul in?"
    "I don't know. We just got in. Don't make it too late: I promised the girl I'd be home early."
    Ned Beaumont said, "Right," and went over to the cloak-room. "Paul in?" he asked the attendant.
    "Yes, about ten minutes ago."
    Ned Beaumont looked at his wrist-watch. It was half past ten. He went up to the front second-story room. Madvig in dinner clothes was sitting at the table with a hand stretched out towards the telephone when Ned Beaumont came in.
    Madvig withdrew his hand and said: "How are you, Ned?" His large handsome face was ruddy and placid.
    Ned Beaumont said, "I've been worse," while shutting the door behind him. He sat on a chair not far from Madvig's. "How'd the Henry dinner go?"
    The skin at the corners of Madvig's eyes crinkled. "I've been at worse," he said.
    Ned Beaumont was clipping the end of a pale spotted cigar. The shakiness of his hands was incongruous with the steadiness of his voice asking: "Was Taylor there?" He looked up at Madvig without raising his head.
    "Not for dinner. Why?"
    Ned Beaumont stretched out crossed legs, leaned back in his chair, moved the hand holding his cigar in a careless arc, and said: "He's dead in a gutter up the street."
    Madvig, unruffled, asked: "Is that so?"
    Ned Beaumont leaned forward. Muscles tightened in his lean face. The wrapper of his cigar broke between his fingers with a thin crackling sound. He asked irritably: "Did you understand what I said?"
    Madvig nodded slowly.
    "Well?"
    "Well what?"
    "He was killed."
    "All right," Madvig said. "Do you want me to get hysterical about it?"
    Ned Beaumont sat up straight in his chair and asked: "Shall I call the police?"
    Madvig raised his eyebrows a little. "Don't they know it?"
    Ned Beaumont was looking steadily at the blond man. He replied: "There was nobody around when I saw him. I wanted to see you before I did anything. Is it all right for me to say I found him?"
    Madvig's eyebrows came down. "Why not?" he asked blankly.
    Ned Beaumont rose, took two steps towards the telephone, halted, and faced the blond man again. He spoke with slow emphasis: "His hat wasn't there."
    "He won't need it now." Then Madvig scowled and said: "You're a God-damned fool, Ned."
    Ned Beaumont said, "One of us is," and went to the telephone.

5
    TAYLOR HENRY MURDERED
    BODY OF SENATOR'S SON FOUND

    IN CHINA STREET
    Believed to have been the victim of a hold-up, Taylor Henry, 26, son of Senator Ralph Bancroft Henry, was found dead in China Street near the corner of Pamela Avenue at a few minutes after io o'clock last night.
    Coroner William J. Hoops stated that young Henry's death was due to a fracture of the skull and concussion of the brain caused by hitting the back of his head against the edge of the curb after having been knocked down by a blow from a blackjack or other blunt instrument on his forehead.
    The body is believed to have been first discovered by Ned Beaumont, 914 Randall Avenue, who went to the Log Cabin Club, two blocks away, to telephone the police; but before he had succeeded in getting Police Headquarters on the wire, the body had been found and reported by Patrolman Michael Smitt.
    Chief of Police Frederick M. Rainey immediately ordered a wholesale round-up of all suspicious