eparted with the
body.

As I turned to reenter the house Stodger's portly form hove into view.
He dropped into one of the library's big easy-chairs.

"Whew!" he gasped. "I'm a peach of a shadow, ain't I? Nice work for
one of my build. Say! That fellow Burke--Alexander Stilwell--he 's
the--you know--most restless party I ever saw. If Fanshawe had n't
relieved me when he did I 'd be worked down to about middle-weight by
this time."

"Anything particular?" I inquired.

"Er--no. You know he came back here. Rest o' the time he spent
dodging in and out of old Page's offices at the Drovers' National.
Walk like a house afire for--m'm-m--maybe a block; next time maybe six
blocks."

"Well?"

"Then he 'd--ah--he 'd turn round and walk back again."

"Not very interesting for you. But we know one thing for certain: he
's uneasy. I have a far lighter task for you, though, than following
the erratic movements of Mr. Alexander Burke."

And then I recounted for his benefit all that I knew respecting the
ruby, declared my belief that it lay somewhere in the house, and,
finally, outlined my plans for the immediate future.

"We 'll divide the vigil between us, Stodger; you and I shall camp
right here until that costly bauble comes to light. We 'll have to
keep our eyes open and our wits about us, too; I wouldn't be surprised
at some tricky attempt to recover it at any time--especially during
darkness."

After showing him the cipher and requesting that he be observant to
find the counterpart of the two peculiar designs, I left him in charge
of the house. Next I arranged that our meals be brought to us, after
which I returned to town and held a long conference with my chief.
This proved to be eminently satisfactory, inasmuch as he left the Page
affair entirely in my hands.

Although I hoped that some new development would require another
interview with Miss Cooper, absolutely nothing transpired until the
next morning. During the rest of Wednesday afternoon--perhaps I forgot
to mention that the murder was committed at about midnight Tuesday--and
until late Wednesday night, Stodger and I prosecuted a diligent and
systematic search for the ruby, the original of the design on the
cipher, and for anything else that might bear upon the crime, but found
nothing to reward our efforts. At a late hour we knocked off and
sought the library's easy-chairs. After a while Stodger asked me for
the cipher. When I dropped off to