etective to
smile slightly. The man was better dressed than his master.

"Your native country is Germany?" said Drew.

"It was, sir."

"No, it is yet. You can't change that part of it. When did you come to
the United States?"

"Fourteen--fifteen years ago, sir. The master brought me from England
where I was employed by the Right Honorable Arthur Sandhurst, sir."

"You are now a naturalized American?"

"Going on thirteen years, sir."

"Come down to my office about noon to-morrow. I want to speak to you
then. I haven't time now. Be sure you bring that magpie with you." Drew
turned and jerked his thumb toward the front of the library. "Do you
understand?"

"I do, sir!"

"That's all!" exclaimed the detective. "One of you may stand by the
door until Mr. Delaney returns. The rest may go downstairs. Remember,
no talking to anybody but accredited police officers, who will soon be
here."

"I'll stand guard!" announced the second-man with a pompous voice.
"Nobody'll get by me, sir. I'll 'ave them know I'm right 'ere, sir."

Drew backed through the curtains as the second-man was speaking. He
dropped them behind him and started another search, which was done in
solitude and in silence. He went over everything in the library with
the trained eyes of an operative who had learned his profession in many
schools. He left deduction and surmise for a later hour. He was after
cold facts which might lead to an answer to the riddle. He held, with
some slight scorn, the theory of the armchair detective and the puzzle
worked out by retrospection. His experience had been, that only through
hard work could he expect to find his answer. He had been credited with
visiting six hundred laundries in search of a certain mark. He had a
note book filled with his failures to find the man he was after. The
men he had found caused him no concern whatsoever. They had gone to
prison and closed their accounts with him.

He applied hard work over the minutes to the case at hand. He went over
the body of the aged millionaire. He took scrapings of the blood stains
on the floor. He scratched up some few atoms of dried whisky. He
examined the bottle. He searched each square inch under and about the
body. He went through Stockbridge's pockets and beneath his vest. He
tried everything in the way of getting facts which might bear on the
case. A tape measure furnished certain distances which were recorded
upon the back of an envelope. His data was comp