yland," read Blaine. Then, with a
sudden exclamation he bent closer over the paper. A prolonged scrutiny
ensued while Suraci watched him curiously. Reaching into a drawer, the
Master Detective drew out a powerful magnifying glass and examined
each stroke of the pen with minute care. At length he swung about in
his chair and pressed the electric button on the corner of the desk.
When his secretary appeared in response to the summons, Blaine said:

"Ask the filing clerk to look in the drawer marked 'P. 1904,'
and bring me the check drawn on the First National Bank signed
_Paddington_."

While the secretary was fulfilling his task the two waited in silence,
but with the check before him Henry Blaine gave it one keen, comparing
glance, then turned to the operative.

"Well, Suraci, what did you learn from the hotel employees?"

"One of the bell-boys told me that this man, Addison, arrived with
only a bag, announcing that his luggage would be along later and that
he anticipated remaining a week or more. This boy noticed him
particularly because he scanned the hotel register before writing his
own name, and insisted upon having one of two special suites; number
seventy-two or seventy-six. Seventy-four the suite between, was
occupied by Mr. Lawton. They were both engaged, so he was forced to be
content with number seventy-three, just across the hall. The boy
noticed that although the new arrival did not approach Mr. Lawton or
his daughter, he hung about in their immediate vicinity all day and
appeared to be watching them furtively.

"Late in the afternoon, Mr. Lawton went into the writing-room to
attend to some correspondence. The boy, passing through the room on
an errand, saw him stop in the middle of a page, frown, and tearing
the paper across, throw it in the waste-basket. Glancing about
inadvertently, the bell-boy saw Addison seated near by, staring at Mr.
Lawton from behind a newspaper which he held in front of his face as
if pretending to read. The boy's curiosity was aroused by the eager,
hungry, expectant look on the stranger's face, and he made up his
mind to hang around, too, and see what was doing.

"He attended to his errand and returned just in time to see Mr. Lawton
seal the flap of his last envelope, rise, and stroll from the room.
Instantly Addison slipped into the seat just vacated, wrote a page,
crumpled it, and threw it in the same waste-basket the other man had
used. Then he started another page, hes