Jacobs didn’t answer at once, and when he finally looked up, Bob read the answer in his face. “Yes,” said the filing chief in a voice so low that it carried only a few feet, “the papers which came over this afternoon have vanished.” Chapter IX SUSPICIONS ★ Bob and his uncle stared at Arthur Jacobs with unbelieving eyes, and the filing chief saw their doubt. “The papers are gone—gone I tell you.” His voice rose almost to a frenzy for this was the first time that such a thing had occurred in his usually well ordered and carefully routined department, and he had visions of losing his job. “Yes, yes, we heard you,” replied Merritt Hughes. “But perhaps you missed them in going through the file. Let’s go through together.” “It won’t do any good,” said Jacobs in a flat and hopeless voice. “I know this file from A to Z and the papers that came in this afternoon are not here.” The federal agent paused and looked hard at the filing chief. “You say they were important papers?” Jacobs nodded. “They were so important that I refused to trust them to anyone else.” “You’re sure no one in the department knew these papers were coming through?” insisted the federal agent. “I can’t be sure,” replied the filing chief, “for there has been talk drifting around the last few days about some important radio discoveries that have been made by the army engineers. But I am sure that no one knew the exact time these papers came over.” “Was it a complete file on the new discoveries?” asked Merritt Hughes anxiously. “I don’t know, but from the usual procedure, I would say that it was only a partial file. Just as a precautionary step they usually send the records of new formulas, and developments over in several sections so that it would be almost impossible to take one section and know what it was all about.” “But you’re not sure about this special file?” “No, except that it was small; a single sheet of paper in a sturdy manila envelope.” “We’d better go through everything in the room,” decided Bob’s uncle, and they got down on their hands and knees and started rummaging through the litter of papers. It would take days to place these back in their proper sequences and Bob felt sorry for Jacobs. They finished one side of the room and started down another. There was no sign of the missing envelope and Bob’s uncle phoned the precinct police station to learn if such an envelope had been found on the prisoner. “Search him again,” he instructed the police when they informed him that no envelope or papers of any description had been found. Bob looked toward the half opened window. “Do you think it would have been possible for him to toss that paper out the window and have it picked up by someone on the ground?” he asked.