A half hour or so later when we arrived at the office we found
McBirney seated there, patiently determined to find Garrick.

Evidently the news of the assault on Warrington had travelled
fast, for the first thing McBirney wanted to know was how it
happened and how his client was. In a few words Garrick told him
as much about it as was necessary. McBirney listened attentively,
but we could see that he was bursting with his own budget of news.

"And, McBirney," concluded Garrick, without going into the
question of the marks of the tires, "most remarkable of all, I am
convinced that the car in which his assailant rode was no other
than the Mercedes that was stolen from Warrington in the first
place."

"Say," exclaimed McBirney in surprise, "that car must be all over
at once!"

"Why--what do you mean?"

"You know I have my own underground sources of information,"
explained the detective with pardonable pride at adding even a
rumour to the budget of news. "Of course you can't be certain of
such things, but one of my men, who is scouting around the
Tenderloin looking for what he can find, tells me that he saw a
car near that gambling joint on Forty-eighth Street and that it
may have been the repainted and renumbered Warrington car--at
least it tallies with the description that we got from the garage
keeper in north Jersey.