lied the great detective after a moment. "Either
guess may be true, although I am almost positive that Dr. DuQuesne had
nothing to do with it, either way. It was no ordinary burglary, that is
certain from Shiro's story. It was done by someone who had exact
information of your movements and habits. He chose a time when you were
away, probably not so much from fear of you as because it was only in
your absence that he could succeed as he did in getting all the guards
out at once where he could handle them. He was a man with one accomplice
or who worked alone, and who was almost exactly Seaton's size and build.
He was undoubtedly an expert, as he blew the safe and searched the whole
house without leaving a finger-print or any other clue, however slight,
that I can find--a thing I have never before seen done in all my
experience."

"His size should help in locating him," declared Crane. "While there are
undoubtedly thousands of men of Dick's six-feet-one and two-fifths, they
are fairly well scattered, are they not?"

"Yes, they are, but his very size only makes it worse. I have gone over
all the records I could, in the short time I have had, and can't find an
expert of that class with anywhere near that description."

"How about the third guard, the one who escaped?" asked Seaton.

"He wasn't here. It was his afternoon off, you know, and he said that he
wouldn't come back into this job on a bet--that he wasn't afraid of
anything ordinary, but he didn't like the looks of things out here. That
sounded fishy to me, and I fired him. He may have been the leak, of
course, though I have always found him reliable before. If he did leak,
he must have got a whale of a slice for it. He is under constant watch,
and if we can ever get anything on him, I will nail him to the cross.
But that doesn't help get this affair straightened out. I haven't given
up, of course, there are lots of things not tried yet, but I must admit
that temporarily, at least, I am up a stump."

"Well," remarked Seaton, "that million-dollar reward will bring him in,
sure. No honor that ever existed among thieves, or even among
free-lances of diplomacy, could stand that strain."

"I'm not so sure of that, Dick," said Crane. "If either one of our ideas
is the right one, very few men would know enough about the affair to
give pertinent information, and they probably would not live long enough
to enjoy the reward very thoroughly. Even a million dollars fails in