didn't that idea get into my thick head before?"

"Are you still certain that the necklace was in the safe when you left the
room?" asked Ned, with a smile.

"Yes; I am dead sure of that. Why," he added, "there must have been a man
that I did not see. Wonder why he didn't give me a clip on the head."

"Someone will come here an' steal you, some day," grinned Jimmie.

"I don't doubt it," replied Frank. "Now, where do you think the other man
was?" he asked, turning to Ned.

Ned arose and went into the sleeping room, from which opened a bathroom
and a large closet. There was a door opening into the sleeping room from
the corridor, the apartment being of the same length, east and west, as
the sitting room. The closet opened from the sleeping room, and also from
the bathroom.

"What do you find here?" asked Frank, following him into the closet and
through into the bathroom.

"The third man might have been hiding in here," Ned replied. "When were
you in this bathroom last?" he added, looking carefully about the place.

"Not since early in the afternoon."

"The suite was unoccupied all the afternoon?"

"Yes; I am rarely here in the afternoon."

"What time did you come up here after dinner?"

"It was probably eight o'clock, for Dad was telling a rather interesting
story at table, and we sat a long time. Mother is away on a visit to the
Pacific coast."

"And your father went to his room then?"

"Yes; he said he had some work to do."

"His room, also, was unoccupied all the afternoon?"

"Yes; it must have been."

"Who is usually about the lower part of the house during the afternoon?"

"No one when mother is away."

"Do you know whether anything was taken from your father's room?"

"Why, I haven't heard that feature of the case discussed. We can soon find
out by asking him."

"Gee!" cried Jimmie. "What would they want to go an' dope him for if there
wasn't something in his room they wanted?"

"That is a very pertinent question," Lieutenant Gordon remarked. "It
certainly seems that the thieves came here for something besides the
emerald necklace."

"Meaning the papers?" asked Ned, with a laugh.

"Meaning the papers, of course," was the reply. "I am still of the opinion
that the theft of the necklace was only incidental."

"It begins to look that way to me," observed Frank. "As Jimmie says, what
would they attack father for unless they wanted to search his room?"

"You know about the papers?" asked