resting. Let me at least
tell you about it."

Dr. Bird groaned louder than ever into the telephone transmitter.

"All right, go ahead and tell me about it if it will relieve your mind,
but I have given you my final answer. I am not a bit interested in it."

"That is quite all right, Doctor, I don't expect you to touch it. I
hope, however, that you will be able to give me an idea of where to
start. Did you ever see a man's body broken in pieces?"

"Do you mean badly smashed up?"

"No indeed, I mean just what I said, broken in pieces. Legs snapped off
as though the entire flesh had become brittle."

"No, I didn't, and neither did anyone else."

"I have seen it, Doctor."

"Hooey! What had you been drinking?"

Operative Carnes of the United States Secret Service chuckled softly to
himself. The voice of the famous scientist of the Bureau of Standards
plainly showed an interest which was quite at variance with his words.

"I was quite sober, Doctor, and so was Hughes, and we both saw it."

"Who is Hughes?"

"He is an air mail pilot, one of the crack fliers of the Transcontinental
Airmail Corporation. Let me tell you the whole thing in order."

"All right. I have a few minutes to spare, but I'll warn you again that
I don't intend to touch the case."

* * * * *

"Suit yourself, Doctor. I have no authority to requisition your
services. As you know, the T. A. C. has been handling a great deal of
the transcontinental air mail with a pretty clean record on accidents.
The day before yesterday, a special plane left Washington to carry two
packages from there to San Francisco. One of them was a shipment of
jewels valued at a quarter of a million, consigned to a San Francisco
firm and the other was a sealed packet from the War Department. No one
was supposed to know the contents of that packet except the Chief of
Staff who delivered it to the plane personally, but rumors got out, as
usual, and it was popularly supposed to contain certain essential
features of the Army's war plans. This much is certain: The plane
carried not only the regular T. A. C. pilot and courier, but also an
army courier, and it was guarded during the trip by an army plane armed
with small bombs and a machine-gun. I rode in it. My orders were simply
to guard the ship until it landed at Mills Field and then to guard the
courier from there to the Presidio of San Francisco until his packet was
delivered personally into