ave stopped us. If he wasn't in it, he was
somewhere not far outside it. He'd had no time to make a real getaway.
All I needed to lay hands on him was a good description."

"Description?" echoed Whipple. "Your agency's got descriptions on
file--thumb prints--photographs--of every employee of this bank."

"Every one of 'em but Clayte," I said. "When I came to look up the
files, there wasn't a thing on him. Don't think I ever laid eyes on the
man myself."

A description of Edward Clayte? Every man at the table--even old
Sillsbee--sat up and opened his mouth to give one; but Knapp beat them
to it, with,

"Clayte's worked in this bank eight years. We all know him. You can get
just as many good descriptions as there are people on our payroll or
directors in this room--and plenty more at the St. Dunstan, I'll be
bound."

"You think so?" I said wearily. "I have not been idle, gentlemen; I have
interviewed his associates. Listen to this; it is a composite of the
best I've been able to get." I read: "Edward Clayte; height about five
feet seven or eight; weight between one hundred and forty and one
hundred and fifty pounds; age somewhere around forty; smooth face;
medium complexion, fairish; brown hair; light eyes; apparently
commonplace features; dressed neatly in blue business suit, black shoes,
black derby hat--"

"Wait a minute," interposed Knapp. "Is that what they gave you at the
St. Dunstan--what he was wearing when he came in?"

I nodded.

"Well, I'd have said he had on tan shoes and a fedora. He _did_--or was
that yesterday? But aside from that, it's a perfect description; brings
the man right up before me."

I heard a chuckle from Worth Gilbert.

"That description," I said, "is gibberish; mere words. Would it bring
Clayte up before any one who had never seen him? Ask Captain Gilbert,
who doesn't know the man. I say that's a list of the points at which he
resembles every third office man you meet on the street. What I want is
the points at which he'd differ. You have all known Clayte for years;
forget his regularities, and tell me his peculiarities--looks, manners,
dress or habits."

There was a long pause, broken finally by Whipple.

"He never smoked," said the bank president.

"Occasionally he did," contradicted Knapp, and the pause continued till
I asked,

"Any peculiarities of clothing?"

"Oh, yes," said Whipple. "Very neat. Usually blue serge."

"But sometimes gray," added Knapp, heavily, and o