!" The detective's eyes flashed with excitement. "Did you see
them, Miss Copley?"

"Yes, but they meant nothing to me."

"How large were they, do you remember?" He waved a hand at Mr. Krech's
extremities. "Large as those?"

"Oh, my, no," said Miss Ocky, glancing at the objects indicated. "Not
nearly as large as those."

"I'd like to interrupt these proceedings," declared Krech in an injured
voice, "long enough to remark that any sculptor would tell you they are
beautifully proportioned to my size."

"I wasn't criticizing their--architecture," said the lady.

"Second time to-day he's called attention to them!"

"Shameful. What was the first?"

"Oh, that was rather interesting. I'll tell you about it if he'll let
me."

"Tell me anyway. He doesn't seem to be paying any attention to us at
all. What _is_ he doing?"

"Hush! he's thinking," said the big man vindictively after a brief
inspection of his friend. "He always looks like that when he thinks.
Scientists aver the eye reflects the mind; note the perfect blankness
of his?"

That effectively aroused Creighton from his momentary abstraction. He
grinned at the two of them.

"Pay no attention to him, Miss Copley. Yes, you can tell her what we
found at the tannery, Krech." He looked at Miss Ocky. "That is in
deference to your interest in the art of detection; may I count on you
not to breathe a word of what I tell you to any one?"

"You may."

"It's a bargain. Go ahead, Krech, while I amuse myself looking over
his desk."

Miss Ocky listened eagerly to Krech's somewhat embroidered account of
their activities at the tannery, but managed to keep an eye on Peter
Creighton the while. He was going over the desk and its roll-top cover
inch by inch, peering at its surface, trailing his fingertips over the
polished wood in case touch might find something that vision hadn't.
Once he interrupted Krech by asking him to bring a magnifying glass
from his bag in the hall.

"What are you looking for?" asked Miss Ocky in the interim.

"Nothing--anything. I expect the first and may chance on the second.
This is just routine, Miss Copley. When I know a crook has been in a
certain spot, I go over the place with a fine-tooth comb. You'd be
surprised to know the number of microscopic bits of evidence a man can
leave behind him in spite of every precaution."

"Have you found anything here?"

"No." He accepted the glass that Krech handed him and went back