! It was suicide, and that puppy Wardrop knows it well
enough. I--I wish I had him by the throat!"

He had worked himself into quite a respectable rage, but now he calmed
himself.

"I have seen the police," he went on. "They agree with me that it was
suicide, and the party newspapers will straighten it out to-morrow. It
is only unfortunate that the murder theory was given so much publicity.
The _Times-Post_, which is Democratic, of course, I can not handle."

I sat stupefied.

"Suicide!" I said finally. "With no weapon, no powder marks, and with a
half-finished letter at his elbow."

He brushed my interruption aside.

"Mr. Fleming had been--careless," he said. "I can tell you in
confidence, that some of the state funds had been deposited in the
Borough Bank of Manchester, and--the Borough Bank closed its doors at
ten o'clock to-day."

I was hardly surprised at that, but the whole trend of events was
amazing.

"I arrived here last night," he said, "and I searched the city for Mr.
Fleming. This morning I heard the news. I have just come from the house:
his daughter referred me to you. After all, what I want is a small
matter. Some papers--state documents--are missing, and no doubt are
among Mr. Fleming's private effects. I would like to go through his
papers, and leave to-night for the capital."

"I have hardly the authority," I replied doubtfully. "Miss Fleming, I
suppose, would have no objection. His private secretary, Wardrop, would
be the one to superintend such a search."

"Can you find Wardrop--at once?"

Something in his eagerness put me on my guard.

"I will make an attempt," I said. "Let me have the name of your hotel,
and I will telephone you if it can be arranged for to-night."

He had to be satisfied with that, but his eagerness seemed to me to be
almost desperation. Oddly enough, I could not locate Wardrop after all.
I got the Maitland house by telephone, to learn that he had left there
about three o'clock, and had not come back.

I went to the Fleming house for dinner. Edith was still there, and we
both tried to cheer Margery, a sad little figure in her black clothes.
After the meal, I called Lightfoot at his hotel, and told him that I
could not find Wardrop; that there were no papers at the house, and that
the office safe would have to wait until Wardrop was found to open it.
He was disappointed and furious; like a good many men who are physical
cowards, he said a great deal over the telep