The Case of the Caretakers Cat   ::   Гарднер Эрл Стенли

It needed no comment from him to point the direction. The vine was agitated by a weight thrust against it. Drops of rain cascaded down from the leaves, were caught in a shaft of light coming from an uncurtained diamondshaped pane of glass in one of the doors and transformed into a golden spray.

The shovel made more noise.

"Scraping dirt back to fill up the hole," Mason remarked.

The beam from Glassman's flashlight stabbed through the darkness.

A startled figure jumped back and thrashed about in the vine, which, under the illumination of Glassman's flashlight, resolved itself into a climbing rosebush. Glassman said, "Come out, and be careful with your hands. This is the law."

"What are you doing here?" asked a muffled voice.

"Come on out," Glassman ordered.

The figure showed itself first as a black blotch in the midst of the glistening leaves, the wet surfaces of which reflected the illumination of the flashlight. Then, as it broke through the vine, Perry Mason caught a glimpse of the man's face and said to Burger, "It's Frank Oafley."

Burger moved forward. "What's your name?" he asked.

"I'm Oafley—Frank Oafley. I'm one of the owners of this place. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"We're conducting a little inquiry," Burger said. "I'm the district attorney. This is Tom Glassman, my associate. What were you digging for?"

Oafley grunted, pulled a telegram from his pocket and held it out to the district attorney. The beam of the flashlight illuminated the telegram, a torn coatsleeve, a scratched, dirtcovered hand.

"You frightened me with that flashlight," he said. "I jumped right into the middle of those thorns. But it's all right. I was pretty well scratched up anyway. I guess my clothes are a wreck."

He looked down at his suit and laughed apologetically.

The four men paid no attention to him, but studied the telegram, which read:



THE KOLTSDORF DIAMONDS ARE HIDDEN IN ASHTON'S CRUTCH STOP MORE THAN HALF OF YOUR GRANDFATHERS MONEY IS BURIED JUST UNDER THE LIBRARY WINDOW WHERE THE CLIMBING ROSEBUSH STARTS UP THE TRELLIS WORK STOP THE SPOT IS MARKED BY A LITTLE STICK STUCK IN THE GROUND STOP IT ISN'T BURIED DEEP STOP NOT OVER A PEW INCHES



The telegram was signed simply " A Friend ."

Glassman said in a low voice, "Looks like a genuine telegram. It cleared through the telegraph office."

"What did you find?" Burger asked.

Oafley, stepping forward to answer him, caught sight of Mason for the first time.