to go through
his trunks, and one of them looked very interesting,--old as the hills
and--"

"You hadn't time? Why hadn't you time? What happened to cut it short?"

"Well, sir, I'll tell you." The tone in which this was said roused me
if it did not the inspector. "I had just come from the desk which had
disappointed me, and was casting a look about the room, which was
as bare as my hand of everything like ornament--I might almost say
comfort--when I heard a noise which was not that of swishing rain or
even gusty wind--these had not been absent from my ears for a moment. I
didn't like that noise; it had a sneakish sound, and I shut my light off
in a hurry. After that I crept hastily out of the room, for I don't like
a set-to in a trap.

"It was darker than ever now in the hall, or so it seemed, and as I
backed away I came upon a jog in the wall, behind which I crept. For
the sound I had heard was no fancy. Some one besides myself was in the
house, and that some one was coming up the little turret-stair, striking
matches as he approached. Who could it be? A detective from the district
attorney's office? I hardly thought so. He would have been provided with
something better than matches to light his way. A burglar? No, not on
the third floor of a house as rich as this. Some fellow on the force,
then, who had seen me come in and, by some trick of his own, had managed
to follow me? I would see. Meantime I kept my place behind the jog and
watched, not knowing which way the intruder would go.

"Whoever he was, he was evidently astonished to see the turret door
ajar, for he lit another match as he threw it open and, though I failed
to get a glimpse of his figure, I succeeded in getting a very good one
of his shadow. It was one to arouse a detective's instinct at once. I
did not say to myself, this is the man I want, but I did say, this is
nobody from headquarters, and I steadied myself for whatever might turn
up.

"The first thing that happened was the sudden going out of the match
which had made this shadow visible. The intruder did not light another.
I heard him move across the floor with the rapid step of one who knows
his way well, and the next minute a gas-jet flared up in the steward's
room, and I knew that the man the whole force was looking for had
trapped himself.

"You will agree that it was not my duty to take him then and there
without seeing what he was after. He was thought to be in the eastern
states, or