“Has any one put this business about the Jap up to Grail?” the surgeon inquired, with a frown. “Not directly,” Appleby admitted; “that is, unless the colonel may have mentioned it to him. He was really the only one who had an opportunity, for Grail left the post shortly after the occurrence, and did not return until nine o’clock, and from that time until they set out for the foundry the two were closeted together in the office. Vedant, however, was rather inclined to pooh-pooh the whole matter, and he may very easily have failed to speak.” “Can any one doubt, though, that Grail knew what was in the wind?” demanded young Hemingway hotly. “Why, the very way he left us here to-night showed it. I say, too,” he insisted, “that a man who’d been caught selling secrets to a Japanese spy, and saw court-martial looming up ahead of him, couldn’t well think of a smoother plan to sidetrack inquiry and shift attention from himself than to have the colonel abducted.” “But that would indicate that this fellow Schilder was in on the deal, too,” objected one of the officers who had not yet spoken. “And what interest could he----” “Schilder? Pshaw! He was only a convenient tool,” interrupted Hemingway. “Believe me, he’s as much in the dark as anybody else.” “How could the game have been worked without his connivance, though?” inquired the other. “Humph! Trust a pack of slick Japanese to handle that all right.” Hemingway gave a toss of the head. “Knowing the colonel’s movements in advance, what would have been easier than for them to secret themselves about the foundry yard; then, at the psychological moment, cut off the lights and rush the colonel out and away. With their agility and cunning, a trick like that would be simply pie to them.” “How do you explain this business about the note from Schilder, though?” broke in another questioner. “You think, of course, that Grail or the Jap forged the note that was received; but, if so, why doesn’t Grail show it up now, instead of making things look worse for himself with the assertion that it has disappeared?” “Ah, that was the smoothest part of the whole deal,” declared the youthful investigator. “He knew that he was bound to be suspected, didn’t he? And he knew, too, that documentary evidence of that sort, subjected to such close examination as would naturally be given it, might lead to his detection. So what does he do but get it out of the way, and at the same time fog the issue with another touch of apparent mystery.” His emphatic arguments began to carry weight with the rest. It was at least a solution that he offered, and, groping about in the dark as they were, they were ready to accept almost any theory that bore the color of plausibility. “I think,” said Dobbs, the surgeon, voicing a general sentiment, “it’s about time for us to put this matter up to Grail straight, and see what he has to say for himself.”