“You’re going to have to step some if you think you can put anything over on me.” Tully and his uncle left the office and Bob watched the door close behind them. “Nice people,” he grinned. “I don’t like the looks of this case,” said his uncle. “It isn’t pleasant to think that you’ve got someone else in the same department, who goes out of his way to make it unpleasant for you, working on the same case.” “Then why is Adams assigned to team up with you?” asked Bob. “Perhaps because we have a habit of getting results,” admitted Merritt Hughes, with a rueful smile. “We’ve been pretty lucky on a number of cases where we have worked together. The breaks have been about fifty-fifty and now we both want a really smashing victory that will bring us advancement. It looks like this may be the case, but it’s going to be dangerous business.” “What do you mean by that?” “Well, look back over the events of the last few hours. We know that an important paper, containing part of a new radio discovery, was sent over to your department from the radio engineering division. Before it can be properly filed, a guard is overpowered and two offices ransacked to find this paper. Later in the night another attempt is made to enter your room and this morning there was an attempt to kidnap you. Looks to me like you’re in a key position, but I don’t know just what it is yet.” “I’ll admit the attempt to get into my room last night and the trouble this morning have me worried,” said Bob. “I’m only a filing clerk so why such attention should be centered on me is a mystery.” They walked out into the corridor. “We’ll stop at the bureau of identification and see if we can learn anything about the fellows who tried to kidnap you,” said the federal agent. They dropped down a floor and entered a long room where a number of clerks were working at filing cases. Merritt Hughes walked up to a slender chap busy at a flat-topped desk. “Look alive, Jimmy,” he said. “There’s business at hand.” Jimmy Adel, chief of the filing division, looked up. “Hello, sleuth. Who are you trailing this morning?” “One red head and one fellow with a scar on his forehead.” “Now isn’t that a lot of help! Don’t you know that there are a good many red heads and a whole lot of people with scars on their foreheads? Just be a little more exact, please.” But he grinned as he chided the federal agent. “Jimmy, this is my nephew, Bob Houston. He’s detailed to help me on a new case that’s breaking pretty fast.” “The radio case?” “You hear about that?” “Sure, it’s all over the department. Looks big to me. Adams working on it too?” Merritt Hughes nodded. “That means you’ll have to step fast. I hear that whoever solves this thing will be in line for an inspectorship.”