Click! It seemed to come from his right.
"Come out o' that!" he snarled. "No monkey-business, or I'll shoot."
He flashed his pocket-lamp toward the sound, and aimed.
A blow on the side of the head sent the detective crashing against a
cartonnage, and together the quick and the dead rolled to the floor.
Instinctively Haggerty turned on his back, aimed at the window and
fired.
Too late!
CHAPTER IX
When the constellation, which was not included among the accepted
theories of Copernicus, passed away, Haggerty sat up and rubbed the
swelling over his ear, tenderly yet grimly. Next, he felt about the
floor for his pocket-lamp. A strange spicy dust drifted into his nose
and throat, making him sneeze and cough. A mummy had reposed in the
overturned cartonnage and the brittle bindings had crumbled into
powder. He soon found the lamp, and sent its point of vivid white
light here and there about the large room.
Pursuit of his assailant was out of the question. Haggerty was not
only hard of head but shrewd. So he set about the accomplishment of
the second best course, that of minute and particular investigation.
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