Free The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart Page A

privet hedge which it was Harrison
Miller's custom to clip with his own bachelor hands, and waited. And
as he waited he tried to imagine what was going on inside, behind the
neatly curtained windows of the old brick house.
    He was tempted to ring the bell again, pretend to have forgotten
something, and perhaps happen in on what might be drama of a rather high
order; what, supposing the man was Clark after all, was fairly sure to
be drama. He discarded the idea, however, and began again his interested
survey of the premises. Whoever conceived this sort of haven for Clark,
if it were Clark, had shown considerable shrewdness. The town fairly
smelt of respectability; the tree-shaded streets, the children in socks
and small crisp-laundered garments, the houses set back, each in its
square of shaved lawn, all peaceful, middle class and unexciting. The
last town in the world for Judson Clark, the last profession, the last
house, this shabby old brick before him.
    He smiled rather grimly as he reflected that if Gregory had been right
in his identification, he was, beyond those windows at that moment, very
possibly warning Clark against himself. Gregory would know his type,
that he never let go. He drew himself up a little.
    The house door opened, and Gregory came out, turning toward the station.
Bassett caught up with him and put a hand on his arm.
    "Well?" he said cheerfully. "It was, wasn't it?"
    Gregory stopped dead and stared at him. Then:
    "Old dog Tray!" he said sneeringly. "If your brain was as good as your
nose, Bassett, you'd be a whale of a newspaper man."
    "Don't bother about my brain. It's working fine to-day, anyhow. Well,
what had he to say for himself?"
    Gregory's mind was busy, and he had had a moment to pull himself
together.
    "We both get off together," he said, more amiably. "That fellow isn't
Jud Clark and never was. He's a doctor, and the nephew of the old doctor
there. They're in practice together."
    "Did you see them both?"
    "Yes."
    Bassett eyed him. Either Gregory was a good actor, or the whole trail
ended there after all. He himself had felt, after his interview, with
Dick, that the scent was false. And there was this to be said: Gregory
had been in the house scarcely ten minutes. Long enough to acknowledge a
mistake, but hardly long enough for any dramatic identification. He was
keenly disappointed, but he had had long experience of disappointment,
and after a moment he only said:
    "Well, that's that. He certainly looked like Clark to me."
    "I'll say he did."
    "Rather surprised him, didn't you?"
    "Oh, he was all right," Gregory said. "I didn't tell him anything, of
course."
    Bassett looked at his watch.
    "I was after you, all right," he said, cheerfully. "But if I was barking
up the wrong tree, I'm done. I don't have to be hit on the head to
make me stop. Come and have a soda-water on me," he finished amiably.
"There's no train until seven."
    But Gregory refused.
    "No, thanks. I'll wander on down to the station and get a paper."
    The reporter smiled. Gregory was holding a grudge against him, for a bad
night and a bad day.
    "All right," he said affably. "I'll see you at the train. I'll walk
about a bit."
    He turned and started back up the street again, walking idly. His
chagrin was very real. He hated to be fooled, and fooled he had been.
Gregory was not the only one who had lost a night's sleep. Then,
unexpectedly, he was hailed from the curbstone, and he saw with
amazement that it was Dick Livingstone.
    "Take you anywhere?" Dick asked. "How's the headache?"
    "Better, thanks." Bassett stared at him. "No, I'm just walking around
until train-time. Are you starting out or going home, at this hour?"
    "Going home. Well, glad the head's better."
    He drove on, leaving the reporter gazing after him. So Gregory had
been lying. He hadn't seen this chap at all. Then why—? He walked
on, turning this new phase of the situation over in his mind. Why
this elaborate fiction, if Gregory had merely gone in, waited for