"They're gone, I see."

Rube also looked up at the shelf. He knew where Kiddie kept his stock
of cigarettes. He knew also that besides the cigarettes there had been
several parcels of pipe tobacco. He observed now that while the
cigarettes had been taken, the tobacco remained on the shelf untouched.
This fact puzzled him.

Kiddie had already gone into the farther room--his workroom--with Isa
Blagg. Isa had taken out his pocket-book and pencil.

"If you'll sing out the things that are missin', Kiddie, I'll make a
list of 'em," he said.

"But I can't tell you right off," objected Kiddie. "There's my gold
watch and chain, worth fifty guineas, a gold cigarette-case studded
with brilliants, five diamond rings, three diamond scarfpins, about
five hundred pounds in English and American bank-notes--a whole heap of
things are missin', but I'm not goin' ter worry about 'em now. The
list can wait."

"But you want t' catch an' punish the thief, don't you?" urged Isa.

"I want to catch and punish the low-down skunk who murdered my
deerhound," declared Kiddie, his eyes flashing in the vehemence of his
anger.

"Kiddie," said Rube, now entering the room, "I'm some puzzled."

"What about, Rube?" asked Kiddie. "What's your problem?"

"It's this," answered Rube, scratching the back of his ear. "Allowin'
that Nick Undrell entered by the broken winder an' carried off the
valuables you've just bin figurin' up, why, when he went into th' other
room, did he take the cigarettes an' leave the tobacco?"

"That's a very interestin' proposition which has already occurred to
me," said Kiddie.

"You see," pursued Rube, "Nick ain't a cigarette smoker. He looks on a
cigarette as a childish plaything. He smokes strong tobacco, the same
as we found in his pipe. Then why did he take the cigarettes an' leave
the tobacco?"

"Dunno," said Kiddie, "unless it was with the idea of leavin' a false
clue--a blind. If he had taken the tobacco, I, who know his contempt
for cigarettes, might the more readily have identified him."

"Thar's a lot in that notion," Rube acknowledged; "but it's just a bit
too cute fer a man like Nick. The galoot that would scatter his
footprints around an' leave his pipe in the canoe ain't clever enough
ter lay a false trail. Seems to me it's more likely Nick didn't see
the tobacco. He was hustlin' to get away with the loot."

"Everything else clear?" Kiddie asked.

"Yes," answered Rube. "I've got the w