the window to the lighted street in front of the house. While he stood
silent Mr. Shaw arose to a sitting position on the couch and asked:

"Why the description, Mr. Nestor? Why the positive statement about the
time at least one of the men entered the house?"

Every eye in the room was now fixed on Nestor's face. Even Lieutenant
Gordon seemed inclined to think that some huge joke was being pulled off.

"The man who came in at six," Ned replied, "came in out of the rain, and
left marks showing the height and breadth of his shoulders on a wall
against which he leaned. These marks show a man tall and slender. He
entered the house dripping with water, moving about like a street
sprinkler and leaving signs of his presence in the places he visited. He
seems to be a person of rather refined tastes, inclined to be neat in
personal appearance, for he went to Frank's bathroom to clean up. There he
used the washbowl and the toilet articles, leaving black hair turning gray
in the comb."

"This is uncanny," shouted Frank. "You couldn't have observed all this
during the minute you were in the bathroom," he added.

Mr. Shaw considered the question gravely, his eyes fixed on those of the
boy.

"He sprinkled the closet floor, did he?" he asked, presently.

"Yes, sir; and stood back against the closet wall, and used Frank's comb
and brush."

"Did he come to this room, also?"

"Yes, sir; the little round spots on the delicate covering of this little
table were made by dripping water. You see, sir, he was in here before the
water dripped off his clothes in the closet, probably soon after he
entered the house."

"But how did he get into the house? How did he get into this locked
room?"

"I should say that he was assisted by some one belonging in the house,"
was the quiet reply. "After he left this room he mounted the staircase and
hid in Frank's closet, evidently waiting for you to return home, or for
Frank to come. Perhaps he hoped that one of you might bring home the
thing, or the things, he had been unable to find in your rooms."

"The papers concerning the Gatun plot, for instance," said the
lieutenant.

The editor glanced at the officer with a slight frown on his brow, but
made no reply to the remark. It was plain that he was unwilling to take up
that phase of the case.

"It is a wonder the fellow didn't jimmy Frank's safe and get the emerald
necklace, without waiting so long for the safe to be opened," he said, in