the firm for thirty years
and more.

"It is Major Van Zandt!" Mr. Wheatcroft declared.

There was a moment of silence; then the voice of Paul Whittier was
heard, saying, "I think there is some mistake!"

"A mistake!" cried Mr. Wheatcroft. "What kind of a mistake?"

"A mistake as to the guilty man," responded Paul.

"Do you mean that the Major isn't guilty?" asked Mr. Wheatcroft.

"That's what I mean," Paul returned.

"But he has confessed," Mr. Wheatcroft retorted.

"I can't help that," was the response. "He isn't the man who opened
that safe yesterday afternoon at half-past three and took out the
letter-book."

The old book-keeper looked at the young man in frightened amazement.

"I have confessed it," he said, piteously--"I have confessed it."

"I know you have, Major," Paul declared, not unkindly. "And I don't
know why you have, for you were not the man."

"And if the man who confesses is not the man who did it, who is?" asked
Wheatcroft, sarcastically.

"I don't know who is, although I have my suspicions," said Paul; "but I
have his photograph--taken in the act!"

V

When Paul Whittier said he had a photograph of the mysterious enemy of
the Ramapo Steel and Iron Works in the very act of opening the safe,
Mr. Whittier and Mr. Wheatcroft looked at each other in amazement.
Major Van Zandt stared at the young man with fear and shame struggling
together in his face.

Without waiting to enjoy his triumph, Paul put his hand in his pocket
and took out two squares of bluish paper.

"There," he said, as he handed one to his father, "there is a blue
print of the man taken in this office at ten minutes past three
yesterday afternoon, just as he was about to open the safe in the
corner. You see he is kneeling with his hand on the lock, but
apparently just then something alarmed him and he cast a hasty glance
over his shoulder. At that second the photograph was taken, and so we
have a full-face portrait of the man."

Mr. Whittier had looked at the photograph, and he now passed it to the
impatient hand of the junior partner.

"You see, Mr. Wheatcroft," Paul continued, "that although the face in
the photograph bears a certain family likeness to Major Van Zandt's,
all the same that is not a portrait of the Major. The man who was here
yesterday was a young man, a man young enough to be the Major's son!"

The old book-keeper looked at the speaker.

"Mr. Paul," he began, "you won't be hard on the----" then