The Mystery Megapack

discuss the present case.
    “I only just arrived, and I don’t allow myself to do any theorizing until I’ve looked over the ground. But I promise you this: you are my partners now, and whatever I learn, I’ll disclose to you. We will work the case over together. It happens more often than you think, that an outsider, one with no connection whatever with the forces of law and order, furnishes us professionals with a priceless suggestion! You are a sound business man, sir, and I grant Mrs. Weston a full share of woman’s intuition!”
    Teller slept for quite a while after dinner. His long night journey, taken at such short notice that he had been unable to obtain a sleeping berth, had tired him. Toward dusk, he awakened, and had supper with them; but he seemed preoccupied with the hour drawing near when he must set forth on the hunt for clews.
    Annie had fixed up a comfortable cot for him on the sofa in the parlor; at his request, the blinds were drawn, all the windows closed. He placed his grip in a little cupboard, and carefully removed all traces of his presence.
    “Not a word to the sheriff, if he calls, nor to anyone else!” he warned, “You won’t have to lie, for nobody suspects my presence, and nobody but the district attorney knows that we are in on the case at all. I have made arrangements to communicate with him, and to forward my reports to Boston.”
    Shortly after darkness had fallen, Sanford Teller, with the furtiveness that delighted Annie as the proper attitude of a sleuth, crept from the house by the kitchen door, and after peering up and down for some moments, darted across the strip of rough ground and was lost to sight in the cedar grove.
    “It isn’t the simple life we expected, but isn’t it just too thrilling?” Annie chattered as they climbed the narrow stairway to their chambers. “Like one of these mystery plays, only lots more real!”
    CHAPTER IV
    GOLD BEADS
    Annie was awakened by a sunbeam which found its way in through a chink in the blinds and struck her full in the eye. Her first thought was of their strange guest.
    “Good gracious! And he wanted to get into the house unseen. We never thought to leave the kitchen door unlocked, nor to give him the key!”
    She hastily threw on a loose robe, and pattered into the front room where her husband still slept. She shook his shoulder impatiently, and as his eyes opened lazily, she cried: “Oh, Frank! That poor Mr. Teller must be hiding out in the cedar grove, waiting for us to let him in!”
    But the resourceful Teller was doing nothing of the sort. When Weston had hastily donned some clothes and slipped downstairs, he heard through the parlor door the deep respirations of a sleeping man; and, cautiously peering within, he beheld the detective reposing on his couch, the blanket drawn up to his eyebrows. Leaving him in peace, Weston passed on to the kitchen and tried the door. It was locked; as were all the windows. Returning to the upper floor, he told Annie what he had found.
    Both now dressed fully, and Annie set the coffeepot on and got out the eggs and began to toast bread. Weston meanwhile knocked at the parlor door. And at the first tap of his knuckles, Sanford Teller sat abruptly up in his bed, his eyes wide awake and alert. Weston grinned.
    “We were afraid we’d locked you out, and overslept! How on earth did you manage to get in?”
    Teller laughed cheerily, and rose in a pair of sky-blue pajamas, stretching his arms luxuriously. “Getting into locked houses is the easiest part of my profession, Weston! Truth is, we have a lot of tricks in common with crooks. I forgot to speak about leaving the kitchen key where I could find it when I returned about half past three; but that didn’t matter. I judge that I didn’t disturb you or Mrs. Weston when I came in and very quietly went to bed?”
    “No, but you disturbed her when she awoke and remembered that you wanted to come back here in the dark, before any one passing by could see you! You hurry up and get washed and dressed; breakfast is ’most ready. And while we’re eating it you can tell her how you managed to get in.”
    Teller grinned. “I don’t know about that! It don’t do to tell too much. Got to hold some things back, or there won’t be anything mysterious about me. And that would be fatal to the reputation of a detective, you know!”
    But under the mellow influence of hot coffee and fresh-boiled eggs and buttered toast that wasn’t burned the