Remember that each of the legs of the bed held a caster; that the caster had to be affixed to a plug which would fit into the bottom of the hole, before it could do its duty. Remember that the foot-end of that bedstead was so heavy that three ordinary men could not have lifted it from the floor after it was in place, to remove the caster, and to get at the receptacles which they concealed. Well, that was the condition. The holes were bored into the legs of the bedstead, before the bedstead was delivered; the casters were arranged so they could be removed. After that, the ambassador simply kept an automobile jack in one of the closets of his room—and so you see, he was able to jack up the bed at any time he so desired, remove the caster, and to get at his tin cylinders. And here the ambassador had been cute again. Although there was a receptacle in each one of the legs of the bedstead, he made use of only one of them; but that one was bored to twice the length of the tin cylinder, and, instead of hiding the two cylinders he wished to conceal inside two of the hollows, he put them both in the same one; one above the other, affixing the top one in its place by sticking it there with a piece of wax, so that it would cling, but yet could be easily dislodged. That fact had saved one of the cylinders when the other had been stolen. Doubtless it had not occurred to the thief that both cylinders were in the same cavity, and probably they had searched all four of them; but it remained that one of them had not been taken. The problem was, how had any person been able to discover the hiding place? The ambassador assured Nick Carter that no other person than himself was aware of the hiding place; that he had never taken any person into his confidence, not even his wife or his daughter. The room was his own room, which he occupied alone; the bed was so huge an affair that it was never moved from its position. How, then, had any person determined where the hiding place had been arranged? The ambassador asked the detective all these questions; and to them Nick replied: “It does not interest us to know how the hiding place was discovered, unless that was the quickest way of recovering the lost papers; but it is not. The only thing for us is the fact that they were taken—and it is a clear and logical deduction that whoever took them has passed them on to another person.” “That is undoubtedly true,” the ambassador replied. “What excuse have you made for keeping that automobile jack in your room?” “None at all. I simply kept it there.” “How often was it your habit to remove those papers from their hiding place?” “Not once in six months. Only when there was something to be added to them.” “When was the last time that you had them out, before you discovered the loss?” “Rather more than a month ago.” “How did it happen that you discovered the loss?”