here."

"Very commendable," smiled Nestor. "Do you think he would have
attracted attention to himself by whistling if he had had no business
here?"

"Anyway," observed Jimmie, "I followed him up. Wish I hadn't, and wish
you wouldn't hop onto me so."

"Do you think he was in these room before he whistled on the stairs?"
was the next question. "That is, in the rooms within a couple of hours
of the time you heard him coming up the stairs?"

"No; I don't think he was. I heard him whistling down at the bottom.
There was a light in this room then, and it was put out; or it might
have been put out just before I heard him whistling."

"How long was he in here before you came in?" was asked.

"Oh, about half a minute, I reckon."

"Not long enough to make all this muss with the papers?"

"Of course not. He couldn't do all this in half a minute."

"Then you think that if he did this at all he did it before he whistled
on the stairs. That he did it and went back, to indicate that he had
just entered the building?"

"That's just it, but I'm not sayin' he did it, mind you, Ned."

"Whoever did this took plenty of time for it," said Nestor, turning to
George. "Will you tell me where you spent the evening, and with whom?"

Fremont told of the meeting of the Black Bear Patrol, of the plans
which had been made at the club-room, and of his parting with Frank
Shaw at the corner.

"Frank will know what time it was when he left me," said the boy,
hopefully, "and the taxicab driver will know what time it was when he
left me at the door of the building. That ought to settle it."

"It might," was the grave reply, "if Mr. Cameron would not speak those
accusing words. Your danger lies there now. For my part, I believe
that, as I said before, the words are more an appeal to you for
assistance than an accusation, but the police will want to arrest some
one for the crime, and so they will doubtless lock you up without bail
until there is a change in the injured man's condition."

"The police are dubs!" exclaimed Jimmie.

"We have to figure on the working of their alleged minds if they are,"
said Nestor.

Then he turned to Fremont and asked:

"You were on good terms with Mr. Cameron?"

"Yes; well, we had a few words at dinner to-night about office work. We
did not quarrel, exactly, of course, but he seemed to think that I
ought to pay more attention to my duties, and I told him I was studying
hard, and that I was doi