ntinued: "Tell Burgess that he need not bother about the man
Locke whom he mentions. Say that I have already located him."

"Very well," and Fuller left the room.

For a space there was no sound save that which came from the street
and the rustle of the pages as Ashton-Kirk went through them.

"Well," asked Pendleton, finally. "What now?"

"Morris," replied his friend, "does not develop like Hume. Fuller
suspected that he'd prove colorless, and so it has turned out.
However, I'll read what he says. It's headed:

"'_A Second Report on Allan Morris_

"'A very careful inquiry failed to uncover anything in connection with
this young man's personal affairs that was not mentioned in my first
report on the same subject. He has led a very even, uneventful life,
attending strictly to business and making every movement count in the
direction of distinction as a marine engineer.

"'However, there has been something in his manner for the last few
years that has attracted the attention of those who knew him best or
came in contact with him. This took the various forms of eagerness of
manner, irritability, long fits of reveries, a feverish desire for
work. At his place of business I learned that he has for some time had
a deep interest in the reports of the patent office. His clerks say
that he'd read these for hours at a time; one of them told me of how
he (the clerk) once forgot to call Morris's attention to the report
until the day after its arrival. Morris has always been very tolerant
with his employees, but that day he burst out in a fury and threatened
to discharge them all.

"'Richard Morris, father to Allan, was a most erratic genius, as my
first report indicated. His propeller, his smoke-consumer, and his
automatic brake were valuable commercial properties, but had all
slipped from his control. Toward the end of his life he engaged in the
perfection of an invention of which he talked a great deal and of
which he declared that he alone would reap the benefit.

"'As Burgess will already have told you, Richard Morris knew Hume. The
latter was a frequent visitor to a shop which the inventor maintained
in the outskirts, as was the mute Locke. I have talked with an old
mechanic who worked for Morris at the time; he told me that the
inventor had made a stubborn fight against the drink habit and seemed
likely to conquer it up to the time that he became acquainted with
Hume. After this, however, he became as much a sla