had worked themselves into typographic frenzy over it. Britz
guessed that the coroner had primed the reporters with all the facts
which had been ascertained at the office, and the reporters, exercising
a lively fancy, had created a mystery that was calculated to absorb
newspaper readers for many days. As Britz perused the news sheets on the
way to the Grand Central Station, he noted with a smile that the
reporters shared with the coroner and the employes of the iron works,
the same mystification as to how the assassin managed to reach his
victim without revealing himself to the clerks in the office.

"It is inexplicable to me how the murderer got in and out of the private
office," one of the newspapers quoted the head clerk. "He must have worn
the fabled invisible cloak," was the only explanation he could offer.

"It's uncanny," another clerk was quoted. "I sat at the third desk from
Mr. Whitmore's door all morning and I'm ready to swear no one entered or
left that office. He could not have committed suicide, for I would have
heard the shot. He came down this morning, after an absence of six
weeks, pleasant and amiable as usual. We all loved him, all of us at one
time or another experienced his kindness. Any intimation that we are
shielding the murderer is absurd. Had we seen him, he never would have
left the office alive."

Dropping the paper, Britz sought in his pocket for the leather card case
in which he had deposited the needle earlier in the afternoon. After
scrutinizing it carefully, he replaced it in the case with an air of
satisfaction.

"Greig," he said, moving his head slightly to one side, so as to face
his assistant, "what do you make of the case?"

"Just this, Lieutenant!" He paused as if in deep reflection. "We've got
to decide whether those clerks are telling the truth. If we accept their
statement that they saw no one enter Whitmore's office and heard no
shot--"

"I have already accepted their statement as the truth," interrupted
Britz.

"The possibility of suicide is eliminated, of course," pursued Greig.
"The pistol we found is brand new and has never been fired. Certainly
Whitmore didn't shoot himself and then swallow the gun. And since the
clerks are sure that no one entered or left the office, why, the only
explanation I can give is that some supernatural agency was employed to
bring about Whitmore's death."

Britz bestowed on his assistant a tolerant smile.

"Then I suppose we might as