“Very simply. I found the jack in the middle of the floor. The sight of it there alarmed me. I closed the door, pulled the curtains, examined the hollow post, and discovered what had happened.” “Now, just when was that?” “Exactly one week ago to-night.” “What time of day or night was it when you made the discovery?” “It was two o’clock in the morning. The papers were stolen between nine o’clock that night and then. I had been inside of my room at nine o’clock in the evening, and everything was in order then. I passed the evening at a theatre, and accompanied some friends to supper after it. It was two when I entered my room and made the discovery.” So much for the manner of the loss. Concerning the papers themselves, Nick had asked the following questions: “You have referred to the swarm of spies for that other government, who are now in the city, presumably for the sole purpose of watching you. How many of them do you know, or, how many of them have you knowledge about?” “Just an even dozen.” “Have you reason to believe that there are more than that number here?” “There may be another dozen, or a score more of them, for all I know.” “How could they, or any of them, discover the existence of the papers in the first place?” “Merely by conjecture; but it was a natural conclusion. They must know that it has been necessary, during all these years since I have been engaged on the matter, to keep very careful data. My memory could not be depended upon in a matter so vital. Hence, it has been a perfectly natural assumption that such papers existed. The thing was, to discover the hiding place—and it was discovered.” “Have you reason to suppose that any other effort than this one has even been made to steal the papers?” “Certainly. There have been seven or eight attempts during the ten years, or, rather, during the last seven of them; all but one during the last five.” “What was done at those attempts?” “Oh, burglars have entered my house. Thieves of the sneak-thief order have ransacked my rooms at one time and another, notwithstanding my watchfulness. A box at a safe-deposit institution was opened through subterfuge—but nothing was taken from it, and I would not have discovered that strange hands had been inside it, had not the manager mentioned something about the man I had sent there.” There was one other point concerning which we will repeat some of the conversation between the detective and the ambassador. “Of the dozen spies whom you know to be in this city, keeping watch on you, and of whom you have given me a list, which are the ones you deem most competent to have carried this theft into effect?” “Either of the first two on the list. The man, Rafael Delorme, and the woman, Dolores Delorme, his wife. They are unquestionably at the head of the system of spies, which we call Siamese; the others are only their puppets.” “Do they know that you are aware of their business here?”