He shut the top and twisted the can around. It was cut out at the back and set in a groove. He hadn’t been wrong when he had traced the wires. He reached inside and lifted from its cradle the combination mouth-and-earpiece of a French-style telephone.

The dial signal clicked in his ear and settled to a buzzing sound. Maclain reached in through the opening and dialed 3-2111.

“Colonel Yerkes?”

“Yes. Who is it?” The colonel’s voice sounded sleepy.

“It’s Duncan Maclain. Phil Barstow’s—”

“I know all about you.” The voice was wide awake now. “I thought you were out at Barstow’s camp.”

“Do you know Nick’s Diner?”

“Of course!”

“Fine,” said Maclain. “Then get together six of your best men—ones you’re positive you can trust. Arm them to the ears and get out here as fast as you can. Nick was shot an hour ago by one of your own troopers—Burzak—while Corporal Walsh was waiting outside in the car.”

“Good Lord!” said Yerkes. “Why?”

“Nick was running a wire room, receiving and sending bets on the aces. He has an extension to the pay booth and two dial phones concealed in a sound-proof room off the pantry. I’m locked in and telephoning from it.”

“Who else is at the diner?”

“Lieutenant Corman, three technicians, two men from the morgue, Walsh and Burzak, and Mrs. Gherigis,” said Maclain. “None of them are leaving—I have all the car keys. At the moment they’re probably hunting for me. I put out all the lights in the place and I had to knock Trooper Burzak cold when he started to move their police car.”

“Can you hold it a minute?” Yerkes demanded. “I’ve got another phone here. I’m going to start out the riot car. Hang on!”

The colonel was back in a few moments. “Tell me briefly what happened and I’ll be right along. The riot squad is already on its way.”

“Phil had a heart attack,” said Duncan Maclain. “I came here to get to a phone. An ambulance is on its way to pick up Phil.

“Walsh and Burzak were parked outside by the end of the diner, where I couldn’t have seen them even if I had eyes. But they saw me come in. The telephone rang and Nick left to take the call in this closet, where I am now. He told me he’d heard his wife call. I thought somebody might be phoning me back about the ambulance for Phil, so I picked up the phone in the booth.

“Nick was on the extension and I overheard part of the call. He said that a hundred a week was cleaning him and he’d blow the works before he’d double it. He said he was leaving his wife a list that would jail them all.”

“You don’t know who he was talking to?”