r _me_ and my interests, while the police act for
themselves, and--very properly, of course, as police--in the interest of
the community."

"Very well. I see you have several clerks in the outer office. Do they
ever come into this room?"

"Never, unless they are sent for."

"If you and your partner were out, and one of the clerks came in
_without_ being sent for, the rest would know it, of course?"

"Certainly."

"I observe three private rooms opening out of this. What are they?"

"This is a sort of extra inner room where I have private interviews with
clients--I was in there with a client for half an hour this morning
before I discovered the loss. The next is a mere little box of a room
where the correspondence clerk sits and works. The other is a larger
place--it is shared between my partner, Mr. Clarence Dalton, and the
head clerk, Mr. Foster."

"Now let me have your broken padlock--and the key. I see you have forced
up the front plate with a screw-driver. I will borrow that
screw-driver, if you please, and force it off completely."

Hewitt's client produced a screw-driver from a drawer, and in a very few
moments the interior of the little padlock lay uncovered. Hewitt
examined the lock attentively for some few minutes, trying the key
several times against the levers. Then he stood up and said--

"Mr. Bell, you have made a mistake. This is not your lock at all!"

"Not my lock!" exclaimed the broker. "What do you mean? I tell you it is
the lock of that box, and I broke it open myself!"

"Yes," answered Hewitt calmly, "it was on that box, and you broke it
open yourself; but all the same it is not your lock. Let me explain.
These are very good little padlocks, with an excellent lever action,
'dogged against detent,' as the technical phrase goes; so that only the
key properly made for each lock will open it. They are so good, indeed,
as locks, that it would be a waste of time to try picking them, when,
because of their small size, it is so very easy to break them apart,
just as you have done yourself, and just as I could probably have done
in half the time, having had rather more experience. Now that is what
has been done with _your_ lock by the person who has your bonds. But of
course a broken lock has one disadvantage as compared with a skilfully
picked lock--it shows at the first glance what has happened. In this
case, Mr. Bell, _your_ lock has been broken and taken away, and the
thief, having first provi