The Man in Lower Ten

The Man in Lower Ten
by Mary Roberts Rinehart

CONTENTS
I I GO TO PITTSBURG
II A TORN TELEGRAM
III ACROSS THE AISLE
IV NUMBERS SEVEN AND NINE
V THE WOMAN IN THE NEXT CAR
VI THE GIRL IN BLUE
VII A FINE GOLD CHAIN
VIII THE SECOND SECTION
IX THE HALCYON BREAKFAST
X MISS WEST'S REQUEST
XI THE NAME WAS SULLIVAN
XII THE GOLD BAG
XIII FADED ROSES
XIV THE TRAP-DOOR

XV THE CINEMATOGRAPH
XVI THE SHADOW OF A GIRL
XVII AT THE FARM-HOUSE AGAIN
XVIII A NEW WORLD
XIX AT THE TABLE NEXT
XX THE NOTES AND A BARGAIN
XXI MCKNIGHT'S THEORY
XXII AT THE BOARDING-HOUSE
XXIII A NIGHT AT THE LAURELS
XXIV HIS WIFE'S FATHER
XXV AT THE STATION
XXVI ON TO RICHMOND
XXVII THE SEA, THE SAND, THE STARS
XXVIII ALISON'S STORY
XXIX IN THE DINING-ROOM
XXX FINER DETAILS
XXXI AND ONLY ONE ARM

THE MAN IN LOWER TEN
CHAPTER I

I GO TO PITTSBURG
McKnight is gradually taking over the criminal end of the business. I
never liked it, and since the strange case of the man in lower ten, I have
been a bit squeamish. Given a case like that, where you can build up a
network of clues that absolutely incriminate three entirely different
people, only one of whom can be guilty, and your faith in
circumstantial evidence dies of overcrowding. I never see a shivering,
white-faced wretch in the prisoners' dock that I do not hark back with
shuddering horror to the strange events on the Pullman car Ontario,
between Washington and Pittsburg, on the night of September ninth,
last.
McKnight could tell the story a great deal better than I, although he can
not spell three consecutive words correctly. But, while he has
imagination and humor, he is lazy.
"It didn't happen to me, anyhow," he protested, when I put it up to him.
"And nobody cares for second-hand thrills. Besides, you want the
unvarnished and ungarnished truth, and I'm no hand for that. I'm a
lawyer."
So am I, although there have been times when my assumption in that
particular has been disputed. I am unmarried, and just old enough to
dance with the grown-up little sisters of the girls I used to know. I am
fond of outdoors, prefer horses to the aforesaid grown-up little sisters,
am without sentiment (am crossed out and was substituted.-Ed.) and
completely ruled and frequently routed by my housekeeper, an elderly
widow.
In fact, of all the men of my acquaintance, I was probably the most
prosaic, the least adventurous, the one man in a hundred who would be
likely to go without a deviation from the normal through the orderly
procession of the seasons, summer suits to winter flannels, golf to
bridge.
So it was a queer freak of the demons of chance to perch on my
unsusceptible thirty-year-old chest, tie me up with a crime, ticket me

with a love affair, and start me on that sensational and not always
respectable journey that ended so surprisingly less than three weeks
later in the firm's private office. It had been the most remarkable period
of my life. I would neither give it up nor live it again under any
inducement, and yet all that I lost was some twenty yards off my drive!
It was really McKnight's turn to make the next journey. I had a
tournament at Chevy Chase for Saturday, and a short yacht cruise
planned for Sunday, and when a man has been grinding at statute law
for a week, he needs relaxation. But McKnight begged off. It was not
the first time he had shirked that summer in order to run down to
Richmond, and I was surly about it. But this time he had a new excuse.
"I wouldn't be able to look after the business if I did go," he said. He
has a sort of wide-eyed frankness that makes one ashamed to doubt him.
"I'm always car sick crossing the mountains. It's a fact, Lollie.
See-sawing over the peaks does it. Why, crossing the Alleghany
Mountains has the Gulf Stream to Bermuda beaten to a frazzle."
So I gave him up finally and went home to pack. He came later in the
evening with his machine, the Cannonball, to take me to the station,
and he brought the forged notes in the Bronson case.
"Guard them with your life," he warned me. "They are more precious
than honor. Sew them in your chest protector, or wherever people keep
valuables. I never keep any. I'll not be happy until I see Gentleman
Andy doing the lockstep."
He sat down on my clean collars, found my cigarettes and struck a
match on the mahogany bed post with one movement.
"Where's the Pirate?" he demanded. The Pirate is my housekeeper,