how could this knowledge have been obtained except by an employee? Paul
was well acquainted with the clerks in the outer office. There were
five of them, including the old book-keeper, and although none of them
had been with the firm as long as the Major, no one of them had been
there less than ten years. Paul did not know which one to suspect.
There was, in fact, no reason to suspect any particular clerk. And yet
that one of the five men in the main office on the other side of the
glass partition within twenty feet of him--that one of those was the
guilty man Paul did not doubt.

And therefore it seemed to him not so important to prevent the thing
from happening again as it was to catch the man who had done it. The
thief once caught, it would be easy thereafter for the firm to take
unusual precautions. But the first thing to do was to catch the thief.
He had come and gone, and left no trail. But he must have visited the
office at least three times in the past few weeks, since the firm had
lost three important contracts. Probably he had been there oftener than
three times. Certainly he would come again. Sooner or later he would
come once too often. All that needed to be done was to set a trap for
him.

While Paul was sitting quietly in the private office, smoking a cigar
with all his mental faculties at their highest tension, the clock in
the corner suddenly struck three.

Paul swiftly swung around in his chair and looked at it. An old
eight-day clock it was, which not only told the time of the day, but
pretended, also, to supply miscellaneous astronomical information. It
stood by itself in the corner.

For a moment after it struck Paul stared at it with a fixed gaze, as
though he did not see what he was looking at. Then a light came into
his eyes and a smile flitted across his lips.

He turned around slowly and measured with his eye the proportions of
the room, the distance between the desks and the safe and the clock. He
glanced up at the sloping glass roof above him. Then he smiled again,
and again sat silent for a minute. He rose to his feet and stood with
his back to the fire. Almost in front of him was the clock in the
corner.

He took out his watch and compared its time with that of the clock.
Apparently he found that the clock was too fast, for he walked over to
it and turned the minute-hand back. It seemed that this was a more
difficult feat than he supposed or that he went about it carelessly,
for th