he skylight.

"It's the right place, all right, Doctor," he called. "Come on up, the
shooting is all over."

* * * * *

Dr. Bird mounted the ladder and stepped out on the roof. Set on one edge
was a large piece of apparatus, toward which the scientist eagerly
hastened. He bent over it for a few moments and then straightened up.

"Where is the operator?" he asked.

Carnes silently led the way to the edge of the roof and pointed down.
Dr. Bird leaned over. At the foot of the fire escape he saw a crumpled
dark heap, with a secret service operative bending over it.

"Is he dead, Olmstead?" called Carnes.

"Dead as a mackerel," came the reply. "Richards got him through the head
on his first shot."

"Good business," said Dr. Bird. "We probably could never have secured a
conviction and the matter is best hushed up anyway. Bolton, have two of
your men help me get this apparatus up to the Bureau. I want to examine
it a little. Have the body taken to the morgue and shut up the press.
Find out which room the chap occupied and search it, and bring all his
papers to me. From a criminal standpoint, this case is settled, but I
want to look into the scientific end of it a little more."

"I'd like to know what it was all about, Doctor," protested Bolton. "I
have followed your lead blindly, and now I have a housebreaking without
search-warrant and a killing to explain, and still I am about as much in
the dark as I was at the beginning."

"Excuse me, Bolton," said Dr. Bird contritely; "I didn't mean to slight
you. Admiral Clay wants to know about it and so does Carnes, although he
knows me too well to say so. As soon as I have digested the case I'll
let you know and I'll go over the whole thing with you."

* * * * *

A week later Dr. Bird sat in conference with the President in the
executive office of the White House. Beside him sat Admiral Clay, Carnes
and Bolton.

"I have told the President as much as I know, Doctor," said the Admiral,
"and he would like to hear the details from your lips. He has fully
recovered from his malady and there is no danger of exciting him."

"I cannot read Russian," said Dr. Bird slowly, "and so was forced to
depend on one of my assistants to translate the papers which Mr. Bolton
found in Stokowsky's room. There is nothing in them to definitely
connect him with the Russian Union of Soviet Republics, but there is
little doubt in my