o leave the
matter to them."

Laverick frowned.

"For certain reasons, Halsey, which I do not think it necessary to
tell you, I have a strong desire to investigate this matter
personally. Please do exactly as I say."

He left the office and strolled up the street in the direction of
the restaurant which he chiefly frequented. He reached it in a
moment or two, but left it at once by another entrance. Within ten
minutes he was back at his office.

"Has any one been, Halsey?"

"No one, sir," the clerk answered.

"You will be so good," Laverick continued, "as to forget that I
have returned."

He passed on quickly into his own room and made his way into the
small closet where he kept his coat and washed his hands. He had
scarcely been there a minute when he heard voices in the outside
hall. The door of his office was opened.

"Mr. Laverick said nothing about an appointment at this hour," he
heard Halsey protest in a somewhat deprecating tone.

"He had, perhaps, forgotten," was the answer, in a totally unfamiliar
voice. "At any rate, I am not in a great hurry. The matter is of
some importance, however, and I will wait for Mr. Laverick."

The visitor was shown in. Laverick investigated his appearance
through a crack in the door. He was a man of medium height,
well-dressed, clean-shaven, and wore gold-rimmed spectacles. He
made himself comfortable in Laverick's easy-chair, and accepted
the paper which Halsey offered him.

"I shall be quite glad of a rest," he remarked genially. "I have
been running about all the morning."

"Mr. Laverick is never very long out for lunch, sir," Halsey said.
"I daresay he will not keep you more than a quarter of an hour or
twenty minutes."

The clerk withdrew and closed the door. The man in the chair waited
for a moment. Then he laid down his newspaper and looked cautiously
around the room. Satisfied apparently that he was alone, he rose to
his feet and walked swiftly to Laverick's writing-table. With fingers
which seemed gifted with a lightning-like capacity for movement, he
swung open the drawers, one by one, and turned over the papers. His
eyes were everywhere. Every document seemed to be scanned and as
rapidly discarded. At last he found something which interested him.
He held it up and paused in his search. Laverick heard a little
breath come though his teeth, and with a thrill he recognized the
paper as one which he had torn from a memorandum tablet and