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“Why not?” Bell demanded
The swindler answered, “Cap pulled down over his eyes, collar up round his ears All that soot on his face, for all I saw he could have been dancing in a minstrel show”
Bell looked at hient crook
“What color was the trunk?”
“Silver”
“How long ago was this?”
“Hour? Little more”
“Enjoy your dinner” Bell started out the door, then stopped with a new thought “Was there a sticker on the trunk indicating the passenger’s class?”
“First”
“Lawrence Block, you’ve earned your first honest raduated reform school”
Bell sent the PSto stay on his toes Then he told Archie, “A coal stoker, or someone who looked like a coal stoker, lifted a silver-colored steamer trunk with a First Class sticker Question is, why?”
“Assu the Professor’s been kidnapped, I’d say they stashed hile him into a cabin they booked somewhere in First Class”
“So would I”
“But,” Archie said, “we found his glasses down here Hoould they knoas co him”
“Or a passenger,” said Isaac Bell “We better get Captain Turner to rustle up a search party”