The old servant had been out now nearly half an
hour. She was likely to return at any moment. He must work quickly.
Swiftly he went through the dresser drawers but without satisfactory
result. There was no time for him to do more. He hastened into the
living room and summoned his aides.
"Find anything, Bob?" he asked.
"Not a thing."
"Beat it up to the roof," he directed. "Have you those field glasses
with you?"
"Sure," replied the operative, "and the handkerchiefs, too."
"All right. Get up there before she starts down. Begin putting up
handkerchiefs and appear to be watching the river. That will mix her up
so she will not know what to do. She will not dare to leave the roof
while you are there. When we're through I'll send the elevator man up
for you with the message that we have found the short circuit."
He turned to the other operative.
"Find anything, Williams?"
"Only this."
Carter's face brightened as his assistant held out to him two copies of
an afternoon newspaper. In each of them a square was missing where
something had been cut out.
"I found them in the waste-paper basket by the old man's desk," the man
explained, "and there was some ashes there--ashes of paper--as if he had
burned up something. Maybe it was what he cut out of those papers.
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