“Very well, then. For the sake of my argument, let us assume that there is one among them who is unscrupulous enough to take desperate means, and see if we cannot get together on common ground. Suppose that, instead of committing a burglary, he hired some one to get possession of that case. Could we not, therefore, account for the disappearance of that case as being the real reason of the burglary, and yet meet my statement that the tracks of professionals were seen in the house?” Mr. Herron leaped to his feet in excitement, crying: “You’ve hit it! you’ve hit it exactly!” “Don’t go so fast,” said Nick. “That is only a shrewd guess on my part, a supposition likely to be changed at the very first step that I make in a serious investigation. However, your case appeals to me, and I will take it. As a first step, I want you to go with me to my desk, and there carefully note down the names of all those promoters who you say have been trying to get possession of those papers. Write down, also, the name and address of the widow, of her lawyer and yours, and as full a description of the case you had made to contain those papers and models, together with a full list of the contents of that case.” Nick took Mr. Herron into the room in which he did his work, and placed him at his desk to comply with his request. While Mr. Herron was thus at work, Nick busied himself with summoning his three faithful aids--Chick, Patsy and Ida--by telephone. By the time Mr. Herron had completed his writing, the three detectives had arrived, and Nick, dismissing Mr. Herron with the remark that three lines of investigation must be begun at once, devoted himself to a consultation with his three assistants. CHAPTER III. THE FIRST STEPS. Nick related to his three aids, in the first place, his experiences of the night previous, when he had happened on the heels of the burglary. This he followed by a statement of the information that had been given him by Mr. Herron, and, concluding, said: “This promises to be a most interesting case. I am impressed with the straightforwardness of Mr. Herron. Still, there may be another side of his statement, or case, and he may not have been wholly frank with me, though I am inclined to believe he was. I shall immediately set out on that point. “Under Mr. Herron’s statement, suspicion naturally turns to one of the parties anxious to obtain possession of that invention.” “And to the widow,” said Ida. “If not to the widow,” said Nick, “to some one representing her, or standing as a representative of her. But we must not lose sight of the fact that, after all, this may have been the commonest kind of a burglary and that the burglars took the case they found in the house simply because it was in their way to do so, and without the slightest knowledge of the value Mr. Herron and the others put upon it.