“Oh, that was easy.” Cato’s brows cleared. “I scored a bull’s-eye the second place I went into. It’s a little tobacco and stationery shop down on Third Street, and the old fellow who runs it is one of the talkative kind. He said he’d laid in a stock of these cigarettes for four customers of his who get their newspapers there every morning, and who live at a rooming house just around the corner. Here, I have the names.” He produced a card on which he had jotted a memorandum. “Miller Vance----” “Ah!” Grail interrupted sharply. “The man who operated the crane. I had a very strong suspicion that he was Russian, for all his alias, and the American twist he had managed to acquire to his tongue. However, that is not especially important. Go on, sergeant.” “I, Pepernik, Louis Minowsky,” read Cato, “and Maurice Matschka.” “Maurice Matschka!” The officer sprang to his feet. “That is a link worth looking into,” he muttered. “Come on!” He caught up his hat, and gave a quick nod of the head toward Cato. “I am going to the city hall.” Arriving at the municipal building, and proceeding to police headquarters, he was directed, on inquiry, to a certain Detective Krause, as having the case of the murdered Japanese in charge. “What makes all you people out at the fort so interested in this affair, anyhow?” the detective asked, with a curious glance at Grail. “Major Appleby and Lieutenant Hemingway was over here before supper, and I told them all there was to know. The best I can do for you, captain, is just to go over the same ground.” “Of course,” Grail assented, with a smile. “Still you know how it is, Mr. Krause; every one wants to hear a story at firsthand; and, as I was, perhaps, better acquainted with poor Sasaku than any of the other officers at the mess, there is just a possibility that I may be able to throw some light on the tragedy.” As a matter of fact, the detective required very little urging. He had come to such an absolute halt in the investigation that he was only too willing to repeat the story to any one who offered even the faintest show of providing a solution. His recital, though, if somewhat more diffuse, was practically the same as that which Grail had already read in the newspaper. He presented nothing new in the way of any material details. “H’m!” The adjutant thoughtfully stroked his chin at the completion of the narrative. “There would be no objection, I suppose, to letting me examine the notebook which you say was found on Sasaku?” “Certainly not, sir.” He stepped away to get it, adding, as he returned and handed it over: “You won’t find anything there to help you, captain. We’ve been over it already with a fine-tooth comb, and it seems nothing but a list of names and people he’d met; some of them in the city directory, and some not.” Grail, however, evidently preferred to decide this point for himself; for slowly and painstakingly he ran over the pages, scrutinizing each entry carefully before he passed on to the next.